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A  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

OF  THE 

INDEPENDENT 
CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH 

MEADVILLE,    PENNSYLVANIA 
1825-1900 

BY 

EARL  MORSE  WILBUR 


MEADVILLE,   PA. 
1902 


This  history  is  the  outgrowth  of  a  historical 
discourse  prepared  for  the  seventy-fifth  anni- 
versary of  the  founding  of  the  church,  and 
deHvered  Tuesday  evening,  October  30,  1900. 
In  the  preparation  of  it  I  have  tried  to  make 
so  exhaustive  use  of  all  printed  or  manuscript 
sources  discoverable  that  no  one  will  need  to 
work  over  the  subject  a  second  time.  Much 
more  material  and  many  more  details  have 
thus  been  accumulated  than  could  well  be 
incorporated,  into  the  present  narrative ;  but 
in  order  that  this  additional  material,  having 
once  been  unearthed  from  a  great  mass  of 
newspapers  and  other  sources,  might  not  be 
lost  again,  I  have  deposited  in  the  libraries  of 
the  Meadville  Theological  School,  the  Har- 
vard Divinity  School,  and  the  American  Uni- 
tarian Association  copies  of  this  history  with 
the  addition  of  full  manuscript  notes,  appen- 
dixes, and  references  to  the  original  sources. 

E.  M.  W. 


LIST  OF  MINISTERS   OF  THE 
CHURCH 

with  approximate  dates  of  service. 

John  Mudge  Merrick    . 


Washington  Gilbert  .  . 
Ephraim  Peabody  .  .  .  . 
George  Nichols  .  .  .  . 
Alanson  Brigham  .... 
Amos  Dean  Wheeler  .  . 
William  Henry  Channing, 
supply 

John  Quinby  Day  .    .    .  . 

Henry  Emmons       .     .     .  . 

Elihu  Goodwin  Holland  . 

RuFUS  Phineas  Stebbins 

Nathaniel  Smith  Folsom  . 


October,     1825  -  October, 

1827. 
December,  1 8  28- April,  1830. 
.May,  1830-July,  183 1. 
July,  1831-July,  1832. 
July,  1832-August  24,  1833. 
Three  months  early  in  1834. 

May- August  or  September, 

1834. 
October  4,  1834-September 

I,  1837- 
December,. 1 837-August  31 

1843. 
Late      October,     1843-late 

September,  1844. 
October  13,  1844-October  i, 

1849. 
October     i,    1849-October, 

1853. 


vi  LIST   OF   MINISTERS 

Coadjutors  : 

James  Freeman  Clarke  .  September    28,  1851-Octo- 

ber    13,    1852 ;    July    17- 
October  4,  1853. 
E.UFUS  Phineas  Stebbins  .  October,  1852-June,  1853. 
Carlton  Albert  Staples    .  July    2,     1854-March    11, 

1857. 
Rush  Rhees  Shippen,  sup- 
ply      November     or     December, 

1857-September  13,  1858. 
Oliver   Stearns,   morning ' 

pp  y  .      .     .     .     .     .      I  January-summer,  i8i;q. 

Nathaniel  Smith  Folsom, 

evening  supply     ...     J 

Richard  Metcalf  ....  January  30,   1860-May  13, 

1865. 
John  Celiverpos  Zachos     .  May    6,    1866-October    4, 

1868. 
Henry  Partridge  Cutting  .  March  13,  1870-middle   of 

April,  1873. 
Robert  Swain  Morison  .     .  September  i,  1874-May  10, 

1878. 
James  Thompson  BiXBY   .     .  January  19,    1879-July  15, 

1883. 
William   Phillips   Tilden, 

supply     . January  i-April  30,  1884 ; 

October  i,  1884-April  30, 

1885. 
Henry  Hervey  Barber  .     .  January  i,  1886-September 

I,  1890. 


LIST   OF   MINISTERS  vii 

Joint  Supplies  : 

Henry  Hervey  Barber  ] 

Egbert  Morse  Chesley  I  September   i,   1890-July  i, 

George  Rudolph  Free-  (      1891. 

MAN 

Thomas  Jefferson  Volen- 

tine September    13,     1891-Sep- 

tember  4,  1893. 
James  Morris  Whiton,  sup- 
ply      October   8,    1893-June   10, 

1894. 
William  Irvin  Lawrance  .  January    15,   1895-April    i, 

1899. 
Earl  Morse  Wilbur  .    .    .  October  29,  1899- 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH 


IT  IS  my  purpose  in  this  history  to  relate 
what  seems  worth  remembering  of  seventy- 
five  years  of  a  movement  for  maintaining  and 
promoting  the  more  Hberal  form  of  Christianity 
in  an  environment  where  it  has  had  many  and 
strong  obstacles  to  overcome.  It  is  a  history 
not  rich  in  dramatic  events,  nor  in  phenomenal 
successes ;  yet  in  the  record  of  these  three  quar- 
ters of  a  century  of  steadfast  adherence  and 
unselfish  devotion  to  a  religious  cause,  there 
are  many  passages  which,  if  writ  large  enough, 
might  inspire  us  who  still  profess  that  cause 
with  a  generous  emulation  of  those  that  have 
maintained  it  before  us. 

When,  on  the  evening  of  May  12,  1788,  the 
little  company  of  hardy  pioneers  from  North- 
umberland County  built  their  first  camp-fire  on 
the  bank  of  French  Creek,  where  Meadville  now 
stands,  they  found  only  the  Indians  in  posses- 


2  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

sion  of  the  region.  Fourteen  years  later,  when 
during  four  weeks  in  the  late  summer  of  1802 
Mr.  H.  J.  Huidekoper  made  his  first  visit  to  it, 
he  found  Meadville  "  a  small  village  containing 
twenty-five  or  thirty  houses,  chiefly  log  ones, 
and  a  population  of  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  inhabitants.  The  country  around  it  was 
chiefly  in  a  state  of  nature."  Meadville  was  still 
far  in  the  western  wilderness ;  for  on  his  return 
to  Philadelphia  Mr.  Huidekoper  found  between 
the  Pennsylvania  line  and  Buffalo  but  three 
small  cabins,  and  at  Buffalo  itseK  only  perhaps 
a  dozen  and  a  half  log  cabins.  "  When  I  arrived 
here,  and  for  years  afterwards,"  he  wrote,  "  there 
was  not  a  single  church  or  house  of  worship  of 
any  kind  in  any  of  the  four  northwestern  coun- 
ties, and  I  believe  there  was  none  west  of  the 
Allegheny  River."  Our  little  frontier  village 
grew,  however,  steadily  if  not  rapidly ;  for  in 
iSioit  had  300  inhabitants;  in  1820,  540;  and 
in  1830,  1 104;  from  which  it  is  fair  to  presume 
that  in  1825,  the  date  at  which  the  history  of 
this  church  really  begins,  there  was  a  popula- 
tion of  something  above  800.  The  completion 
of  the  turnpike  between  Philadelphia  and  Erie 
in  1824,  and  of  the  Erie  Canal  in  October,  1825, 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  3 

seemed  to  bring  this  part  of  the  country  into 
very  close  connection  with  the  East.  It  was 
boasted  that  a  gentleman  had  traveled  to  Troy 
from  Erie  in  only  seventy-nine  hours,  and  that 
a  merchant  had  arrived  at  Meadville  from  New 
York  in  the  unprecedented  time  of  five  and  one 
half  days ;  while  the  time  to  Philadelphia  had 
been  reduced  to  only  six  days. 

At  the  beginning  of  1825  Meadville  possessed 
ten  stores,  ten  taverns,  four  mills,  a  college  al- 
ready ten  years  old,  and  a  church  organization 
of  even  age  with  the  century.  The  church 
mentioned,  the  Presbyterian,  had  dedicated  its 
meeting-house  in  1820  (on  the  lot  where  the 
present  church  stands) ;  and  this  remained  the 
only  place  for  public  worship  until  1825,  when 
the  Methodists,  who  had  organized  a  class  early 
in  that  year,  fitted  up  a  room  for  meetings  over 
John  Lupher's  blacksmith-shop,  the  building 
still  standing  at  the  southeast  corner  of  South 
Main  and  Arch  streets.  The  Lutherans  had 
formed  a  church  in  181 5,  but  it  ceased  to  exist 
soon  after,  upon  the  departure  of  its  minister. 
An  Episcopal  church  was  organized  January 
25,  1825,  but  its  church  building  was  not  dedi- 
cated until  three  years  later. 


4  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

In  its  general  religious  tendencies  this  part 
of  the  State  was  markedly  conservative,  as  it 
remains,  relatively  speaking,  even  to  this  day. 
The  predominant  element  among  the  early  set- 
tlers was  of  Scotch-Irish  origin,  strong  in  its 
allegiance  to  the  faith  of  Calvin  and  of  Knox  ; 
and  the  considerable  proportion  of  German 
settlers  was  scarcely  more  favorable  to  liberal 
Christianity.  Such  was  the  little  village,  and 
such  the  general  environment,  into  which  this 
church  came  seventy-five  years  ago,  —  certainly 
it  furnished  no  bright  promise  as  a  field  in 
which  to  propagate  Unitarianism.  And  it  is 
but  stating  the  truth  in  its  simplest  terms  to  say 
that,  except  for  the  devoted  earnestness  and  the 
material  support  of  one  man  and  his  family, 
there  is  little  reason  to  suppose  that  there 
would  have  been  a  Unitarian  church  at  Mead- 
ville  even  to  this  day,  or  that,  had  it  once  been 
founded,  it  would  have  been  long  or  strongly 
maintained. 

The  man  chiefly  through  whose  efforts  this 
church  was  organized  and  maintained  for  many 
years  was  Harm  Jan  Huidekoper ;  and  it  is 
necessary  here  to  digress  a  little  in  order  to 
bring  his  life  into  connection  with  the  history 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  5 

of  the  church.  Born  at  Hoogeveen,  in  the  pro- 
vince of  Drenthe,  Holland,  April  3,  1776,  he 
came  to  America  at  the  age  of  twenty,  and  set- 
tled at  Meadville  late  in  the  month  of  Novem- 
ber, 1804,  as  agent  of  the  Holland  Land  Com- 
pany, which  had  acquired  in  this  part  of  the 
State  about  half  a  million  acres  of  land.  At 
the  time  this  church  was  founded,  therefore,  he 
was  in  his  fiftieth  year,  one  of  the  old  settlers, 
and  a  man  of  wealth  and  influence  in  the  com- 
munity. He  had  been  brought  up  a  strict  Cal- 
vinist,  according  to  the  Heidelberg  Catechism, 
and  early  in  life  had  joined  the  Dutch  Re- 
formed church ;  and  there  is  no  evidence  that 
he  had  either  seriously  questioned  its  main 
teachings,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  had  made 
them  independently  his  own.  When,  however, 
he  found  his  family  of  five  children  growing  up 
about  him,  and  realized  that  he  was  responsible 
for  their  religious  instruction,  it  became  a  mat- 
ter of  serious  concern  with  him  what  he  should 
teach  them.  At  about  this  period,  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1823,  he  listened  to  a  sermon  preached 
by  the  Rev.  John  Campbell  of  Pittsburg  at  the 
dedication  of  the  new  Unitarian  church  there, 
which  marked  an  epoch  in  his  experience,  and 


6  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

caused  him  to  examine  the  foundations  of  his 
religious  belief.  Finding  it  impossible  longer 
to  accept  blindly  the  faith  of  his  youth,  and  be- 
ing ever  a  man  of  independent  mind,  he  now 
applied  himself  earnestly  to  an  unbiased  study 
of  the  New  Testament.  That  he  might  know 
what  to  teach  his  children  upon  what  he  re- 
garded as  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  Christianity, 
he  read  the  New  Testament  through  again  and 
again,  and  wrote  out  all  the  passages  bearing 
on  each  of  those  doctrines.  From  a  compari- 
son of  these  he  drew  his  own  conclusions,  and, 
to  use  his  own  words,  "  soon  acquired  clear  and 
definite  notions  as  to  all  the  leading  doctrines 
of  the  Christian  religion." 

The  result  was  the  reverse  of  what  he  had  per- 
haps anticipated.  Instead  of  having  his  early 
faith  confirmed,  he  became  fully  convinced  that 
the  Bible  does  not  teach  the  doctrines  of  the 
Trinity,  the  total  depravity  of  all  men,  or  the 
vicarious  atonement  of  Christ.  Without  ever 
having  read  a  Unitarian  book,  or  being  familiar 
with  Unitarian  teachings,  he  had  become  a 
Unitarian  by  his  independent  study  of  the 
Scriptures ;  and  it  was  not  until  now  that  he 
procured  a  collection  of   Unitarian  works  by 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  7 

sending  to  the  East  for  them.  He  had  for 
more  than  twenty  years  attended  the  Presbyte- 
rian church  with  his  family,  had  been  one  of 
its  most  Hberal  supporters,  and  had  contrib- 
uted a  generous  share  toward  the  erection  of 
its  meeting-house.  But  the  zeal  of  a  new  con- 
vert now  possessed  him,  and  he  could  not  keep 
his  liberal  convictions  to  himself.  He  became 
an  earnest  propagandist,  and  in  conversations 
and  discussions  by  the  way,  and  through  the 
circulation  of  tracts  and  books,  he  embraced 
every  opportunity  that  he  found  or  could  make, 
to  spread  his  new  faith  among  his  neighbors.^ 
His  duty  to  his  own  children,  too,  was  now 
made  clear.  He  could  not  suffer  them  longer 
to  be  taught  the  religious  doctrines  that  they 
were  sure  to  learn  at  the  Presbyterian  church 
and  Sunday-school.  In  seeking  for  tutors, 
therefore,  to  conduct  their  education  at  home, 
he  sent  to  New  England  and  engaged  young 
men  of  the  Unitarian  faith,  usually  graduates 
of   Harvard  College  or  the  Harvard   Divinity 

1  He  was  agent  for  the  tracts  of  the  American  Unitarian 
Association  in  1830,  and  at  an  early  date  had  formed  a  tract 
association  with  ten  members.  An  "  Association  Auxiliary  to 
the  A.  U.  A."  existed  here  in  1832  or  earlier. 


8  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

School,  and  candidates  for  the  ministry,  who 
were  employed  with  reference  to  their  willing- 
ness to  hold  religious  services  while  here.^  It 
was  thus  that  the  first  Unitarian  preachers  were 
brought  to  Meadville;  and  as  they  were  usually 
willing  to  devote  only  a  year  or  two  to  the 
office  of  tutor,  there  was  a  rapid  change  of 
preachers  during  the  first  few  years  of  the 
church's  history. 

I  have  said  that  it  was  mainly  through  Mr. 
Huidekoper's  efforts  that  the  church  was  or- 
ganized and  for  a  long  time  maintained ;  but 
no  one  family  can  make  a  church.  There  were 
other  devoted  supporters  of  the  new  cause,  both 
with  their,  substance  and  with  their  influence. 
There  was  Miss  Margaret  Shippen,  who  came 

^  Benjamin  Bakewell  of  Pittsburg,  writing  to  Mr.  Huidekoper 
in  1824,  says,  "  Mr.  Ware  [the  Rev.  William  Ware,  then  of  New 
York  City,  who  had  written  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Campbell  of 
Pittsburg]  wishes  to  know  what  prospect  there  would  be  for 
a  young  minister  of  the  persuasion  in  western  Pennsylvania. 
I  suggested  to  Mr.  Campbell  that  perhaps  a  clever  young  man 
who  would  undertake  the  education  of  a  select  number  of  boys, 
and  conduct  the  worship  on  the  Sabbath,  might  possibly  meet 
with  encouragement  in  Meadville.  What  think  you  of  it  ?  "  It 
is  perhaps  from  this  letter  that  Mr.  Huidekoper  got  his  idea. 
The  school  was  held  in  the  north  wing  of  "  Pomona  Hall,"  Mr. 
Huidekoper's  residence  in  Water  street,  where  that  of  his  son 
Frederic  has  stood  in  more  recent  years. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  9 

to  Meadville  in  1825,  already  a  zealous  Unita- 
rian, from  Mr.  Furness's  church  at  Philadelphia, 
and  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  the  only 
one  of  the  first  adherents  of  this  church  who 
had  been  trained  in  Unitarianism  elsewhere; 
and  not  long  afterward  there  came  over  from 
the  Episcopal  fold  the  wife  and  family  of  her 
brother,  Judge  Henry  Shippen.  There  was 
Arthur  Cullum,  merchant,  and  his  wife,  whose 
children  six  presently  came  to  be  among  the 
most  stanch  and  influential  members  of  the 
church.  There  was  Judge  Stephen  Barlow, 
and  Octavius  Hastings,  merchant,  and  Livy 
Barton,  hotel-keeper,  and  John  Beach  and  Bailey 
S.  Courtney  and  Isaac  Cooper  and  their  fami- 
lies, and  William  P.  Shattuck ;  not  to  mention 
many  more,  who  must  have  been  among  the 
first  to  hear  our  gospel  preached  at  Meadville. 
The  first  preacher  of  Unitarianism  here  was 
John  Mudge  Merrick,  a  young  man  who  had 
not  yet  finished  his  studies  at  Bowdoin  College, 
and  who  was  tutor  in  Mr.  Huidekoper's  family 
from  October,  1825,  to  October,  1827.  His  first 
service,  the  date  of  which  I  have  been  unable 
to  discover,  though  it  was  presumably  soon 
after  his  arrival,  was  held  in  the  Presbyterian 


10  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

church  in  Liberty  street.  Mr.  Merrick  generally 
preached  fortnightly,  sometimes  upstairs  in  the 
old  log  Court  House  standing  at  the  northwest 
corner  of  the  Public  Square  and  Cherry  Alley, 
where  Haskins  and  McClintock's  law  ofhce  now 
stands,  sometimes  in  the  new  Court  House,  but 
usually  in  the  Presbyterian  church  at  3  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon.  There  was  no  organ,  even  in 
the  church,  and  the  services  must  have  been 
exceedingly  simple ;  but  letters  written  at  the 
time  show  that  there  was  no  lack  of  warm  fervor 
and  lively  interest.  Sunday  evenings  the  little 
flock  used  to  gather  at  Pomona  Hall  and  sing 
hymns  together  under  Mr.  Merrick's  leadership. 
Mr.  Merrick's  preaching  was  of  a  high  order, 
practical  and  earnest,  extremely  simple  and  di- 
rect. He  was  a  thorough  scholar  of  large  and 
varied  acquirements,  and  a  faithful  minister,  con- 
servative in  theology,  and  active  in  the  cause 
of  education  and  of  temperance.  He  remained 
here  two  years  in  his  double  office,  and  then 
withdrew  in  order  to  devote  himself  exclusively 
to  the  work  of  the  ministry.  He  afterwards 
held  pastorates  at  Hardwick,  Sandwich,  and 
Walpole,  Mass.,  —  at  the  latter  place  for  nearly 
thirty  years,  where  president  George  L.  Cary 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  ii, 

studied  theology  under  his  direction.  He  died 
at  Charlestown,  N.  H.,  where  he  was  minister, 
March  20,  187 1,  at  the  age  of  nearly  sixty-seven 
years. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  way  in  which  the 
new  preaching  was  received.  It  might  have 
been  expected,  perhaps,  that  the  people  of 
Meadville  would  be  predisposed  to  give  it  a 
kindly  reception ;  for  Allegheny  College,  an 
institution  of  which  Meadville  was  and  is  justly 
proud,  had  already  had  rich  experience  of  Uni- 
tarian benefactions.  The  college  had  been 
founded  in  181 5  (chartered  181 7);  and  when 
its  first  president,  the  Rev.  Timothy  Alden, 
went  East  to  solicit  funds  for  it,  the  first  sub- 
scription that  he  received  was  one  from  Presi- 
dent John  Adams,  while  among  the  names  that 
followed  were  those  of  Channing,  Frothingham, 
Lowell,  Ticknor,  Greenleaf,  Parkman,  Thayer, 
Worcester,  and  Bancroft,  all  well  known  Uni- 
tarian names;  and  among  local  subscribers, 
Mr.  Huidekoper  had  been  one  of  the  most  gen- 
erous. Moreover,  the  Rev.  William  Bentley, 
D.  D.,  of  Salem,  Mass.  —  who  at  his  death  in 
18 19  bequeathed  to  the  young  college  an  im- 
portant part  of  his  library,  valued  at  ^3000,  and 


12  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

known  to  be  one  of  the  most  valuable  private 
collections  in  the  country,  and  in  whose  honor 
its  first  building,  finished  in  1819,  was  named 
Bentley  Hall  —  was  a  prominent  Unitarian 
clergyman.  These  gentlemen  in  the  East, 
however,  had  given  not  as  Unitarians  but  as 
Christian  philanthropists,  and  without  seeking 
to  influence  the  religious  tendency  of  the  new 
college.  It  may  be  doubted,  indeed,  whether 
many  here  even  knew  their  religious  affiliations. 

At  all  events,  even  before  Mr.  Merrick's  ar- 
rival, Mr.  Huidekoper's  known  acceptance  and 
advocacy  of  Unitarian  beliefs  had  roused  such 
a  storm  of  opposition  as  to-day  can  hardly  be 
imagined.  Not  to  mention  the  controversies 
which  followed  would  be  to  omit  a  significant 
passage  in  the  history  I  have  to  relate.  Happily, 
however,  we  can  speak  calmly  of  these  things 
now,  and  I  trust  without  offense  to  any,  since 
we  are  not  to  judge  them  by  the  standards  of 
the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  because 
the  rigors  of  the  theological  climate  have  so 
wonderfully  softened  in  the  course  of  seventy- 
five  years. 

It  was  not  a  period  when,  at  least  outside  of 
New  England,  liberal  views   in   religion  were 


V 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  13 

looked  upon  by  those  who  opposed  them  with 
the  least  tolerance.  To  illustrate  the  spirit  of 
the  time,  I  may  cite  some  characteristic  exam- 
ples of  the  way  in  which  our  dangerous  heresies 
were  received.  In  1827  a  leading  Baptist  min- 
ister in  New  York  City  said  in  a  sermon,  "  Of 
all  people  I  ever  knew  or  read  of,  the  Socinians 
I  think  are  the  worst ;  and  if  there  is  such  a 
place  as  the  hottest  hell,  I  do  think  they  richly 
deserve  it,  and  no  doubt  will  have  it."  In  his 
Christmas  sermon  in  1824,  a  Roman  Catholic 
clergyman  named  McGuire,  at  Pittsburg,  took 
occasion  to  attack  Unitarians,  speaking  of  them 
as  "  infidels,  worse  than  devils  .  .  .  lost  not 
only  to  every  sense  of  religion,  but  also  of 
shame,"  and  devoted  them  to  eternal  damnation. 
He  was  answered  by  a  Unitarian  of  English 
origin,  who  bore  much  the  same  relation  to  the 
young  Pittsburg  church  that  Mr.  Huidekoper 
bore  to  that  at  Meadville,  Mr.  Benjamin  Bake- 
well;  ^  and  since  the  Pittsburg  newspapers  would 
not  insert  communications  answering  direct  at- 
tacks upon  Unitarians,  Mr.  Bakewell  was  com- 
pelled to  publish  his  reply  as  a  tract. 

1  Founder  of  the  flint-glass  industry  at  Pittsburg,  and  a  most 
devoted  Unitarian. 


14  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

It  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  at  Meadville 
at  that  period,  the  disposition  of  the  defenders 
of  the  faith  toward  teachings  deemed  so  danger- 
ous was  essentially  different  from  what  it  was 
elsewhere.  The  Rev.  John  Van  Liew,  indeed, 
minister  of  the  Presbyterian  church  from  182 1 
to  1824,  while  strongly  orthodox  in  his  personal 
convictions,  was  a  man  of  a  generous  tolerance 
unusual  at  that  day.  But  during  the  pastorate 
of  his  successor,  the  Rev.  Wells  Bushnell,  from 
1826  to  1833,  and  in  the  intervening  two  years 
when  the  Rev.  Timothy  Alden  often  supplied 
the  pulpit,  the  Unitarians  —  I  quote  from  a 
local  newspaper  of  the  time  —  "  were  made  the 
object  of  constant  and  unrelenting  vituperation. 
It  was  charged  that  they  were  not  Christians ; 
that  they  were  enemies  to  God  and  to  Christ ; 
that  they  denied  the  Lord  who  bought  them ; 
and  that  they  wished  to  dethrone  Christ,  and  to 
tear  the  crown  of  laurel  from  his  brow."  The 
Erie  Presbytery  voted  that  all  that  attended  the 
worship  of  Unitarians  or  Universalists  should 
thereby  become  amenable  to  church  censure. 
An  aged  member  of  the  church  at  Meadville 
was  repeatedly  threatened  by  his  minister  with 
expulsion,  for  expressing  the  opinion  that  Uni- 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  15 

tarians  and  Universalists  were  Christians ;  and 
an  attempt  was  made  to  prevent  the  ringing  of 
the  church  bell  to  call  the  people  together  to 
hear  a  Universalist  preacher.  Such  was  the 
opposition  and  persecution  which  those  here 
that  first  adhered  to  Unitarianism  had  to  meet. 
The  files  of  the  "  Crawford  Messenger,"  the 
local  newspaper  of  that  period,  afford  an  inter- 
esting view  of  forms  of  controversy  now  long 
obsolete.  The  most  notable  of  these  contro- 
versies, waged  not  without  heat  on  both  sides, 
and  with  some  use  of  personalities  and  invec- 
tive, fills  column  after  column  during  nearly 
nine  months ;  and  when  the  editor's  patient 
indulgence  was  finally  exhausted,  it  was  still 
continued  as  a  pamphlet  war.  We  can  all  afford 
to  smile  over  these  things  now ;  but  then  it  was 
no  smiling  matter  for  any  one  concerned.  And 
it  is  worth  while  to  have  dwelt  upon  them  here, 
in  order  the  better  to  appreciate  through  what 
storm  and  stress  our  church  first  won  for  itself 
a  place  in  this  community.  The  ultimate  re- 
sult of  these  controversies  was  favorable,  rather 
than  otherwise,  to  the  infant  church.  There 
was  a  lively  leaven  of  theological  unrest  at  work 
throughout  the  whole  western  country  at  this 


i6  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

time.  All  men  were  set  to  thinking;  and  of 
those  that  thought,  not  a  few  became  persuaded 
that  the  things  for  which  this  church  was 
founded  were  true. 

The  church  thus  established  was  the  first 
Unitarian  church  west  of  the  Alleghanies  that 
has  maintained  an  unbroken  existence  down  to 
the  present  day,  and  one  of  the  first  in  the 
country  to  be  from  its  foundation  avowedly 
Unitarian/  Meadville  did  not  long  remain  the 
western  outpost  of  Unitarianism,  however ;  for 
in  1830  churches  were  founded  at  Cincinnati 
and  Louisville,  in  1831  at  Buffalo,  in  1834  at 
St.  Louis,  and  in  1836  at  Chicago. 

Difficulty  must  have  been  experienced  in 
filling  Mr.  Merrick's  place,  for  there  were  no 
services  held  for  a  year  after  his  departure. 
There  was  a  tutor  in  Mr.  Huidekoper's  family, 

^  A  large  number  of  the  original  Congregational  churches  in 
New  England,  however,  had  already  accepted  Unitarian  doc- 
trines, and  had  been  disfellowshiped  for  it  by  the  orthodox. 
Joseph  Priestley  had  established  Unitarian  churches  at  North- 
umberland and  at  Philadelphia  in  1794  and  1796  respectively, 
and  in  1820  the  Rev.  John  Campbell  had  founded  a  Unitarian 
church  at  Pittsburg,  which  led  a  troubled  existence  until  about 
1865,  when  its  activities  ceased.  It  was  revived  in  1889  as  an 
entirely  new  movement.  A  Unitarian  church  was  dedicated  at 
Harrisburg  Feb.  4,  1829. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  17 

indeed,  a  thoughtful  boy  of  sixteen  or  seventeen, 
fresh  from  Harvard  College,  who  afterward 
became  known  to  fame  as  Andrew  Preston 
Peabody,  one  of  the  best  known  and  best  be- 
loved ministers  of  the  century.  But  he  had 
not  as  yet  even  begun  his  studies  in  theology, 
and  did  not  preach  at  all  while  here.  He  was 
only  the  first  of  several,  later  among  the  most 
distinguished  ministers  of  the  denomination, 
who  had  early  experience  at  Meadville. 

The  second  preacher  was  Washington  Gil- 
bert, a  graduate  of  Williams  College  and  of  the 
Harvard  Divinity  School,  who  arrived  here  in 
December,  1828.  Like  Mr.  Merrick,  he  usu- 
ally preached  every  two  weeks.  At  first  the  ser- 
vices continued  to  be  held  in  the  Presbyterian 
church,  at  two  or  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
by  virtue  of  a  clause  in  the  original  articles  of 
that  church's  association,  which  provided  that 
the  meeting-house,  when  not  occupied  by  the 
society  usually  worshiping  there,  should  be 
open  to  any  Christian  society  for  the  purpose 
of  public  worship.  But  it  is  more  than  doubt- 
ful whether  Unitarianism  was  among  the  forms 
of  Christianity  that  had  been  contemplated. 
At  all  events,  not  long  after  Mr.  Gilbert's  ar- 


^/ 


i8  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

rival  the  storm  of  controversy  broke  out  afresL 
A  project  was  discussed  for  excluding  Unitari- 
ans from  the  use  of  the  church.  On  one 
Thanksgiving  day  they  were  forbidden  to  use 
the  church,  though  unoccupied,  for  a  Thanks- 
giving service ;  but  an  adventurous  young 
man  climbed  into  the  window,  and  opened  and 
lighted  the  church,  so  that  service  was  held  that 
evening.  At  another  time  the  sexton  hid  the 
candles  in  the  foot-stoves,  that  the  Unitarians 
might  not  be  able  to  light  the  church  for  their 
service.  In  short,  the  situation  became  so  ag- 
gravated as  to  be  no  longer  tolerable.  Early  in 
1830,  therefore,  we  find  the  Unitarians  already 
holding  their  services  in  the  new  Court  House 
at  half  past  ten  or  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing. Clinton  Cullum,  then  a  lad  not  yet  in  his 
teens,  used  to  carry  the  pulpit  Bible  down  to 
these  services  from  his  father's  house. 

During  Mr.  Gilbert's  ministry  an  important 
step  toward  the  permanence  of  the  movement 
was  taken  in  the  adoption  of  a  constitution, 
under  which  the  church  was  formally  organized 
May  21,  1829.  This  first  constitution  was  a 
plain  business  document.  Its  first  article,  en- 
titled "  Fundamental  Principles,"  provided  that 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  19 

*'  every  one  who  believes  in  the  existence  of  one 
God,  and  in  the  divine  mission  of  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth as  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  is  admis- 
sible as  a  member  of  this  church ;  and  no  other 
profession  of  faith  than  that  contained  in  this 
simple  creed  shall  at  any  time  be  imposed  as  a 
condition  of  church  membership.  Every  per- 
son," the  constitution  continues,  "  possesses  the 
inalienable  right  of  judging  for  himself  in  mat- 
ters of  religion,  and  no  one  has  the  right  to  call 
another  to  account  for  any  religious  opinions 
which  he  may  hold."  Members  became  such 
by  subscribing  the  constitution  ;  but  only  con- 
tributors were  permitted  to  vote  in  the  choice 
of  a  minister. 

At  the  present  day  no  Unitarian  church 
within  my  knowledge  so  much  as  dreams  of 
imposing  a  creed,  however  simple  or  liberal,  as 
a  test  of  membership.  It  has  long  since  be- 
come an  axiom  that  our  basis  of  union  is  not 
identical  belief,  but  common  purpose ;  and  that 
"every  person  possesses  the  inalienable  right 
of  judging  for  himself  "  concerning  fundamen- 
tal doctrines  no  less  than  minor  ones.  And 
the  present  history  of  our  body  abundantly 
demonstrates  that  from  this   absolute  mental 


20  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

freedom  there  results  not  a  weakening  diversity, 
but  a  remarkable  unity  of  spirit  in  the  bond  of 
peace,  which  has  tended  to  increase  in  direct 
proportion  as  doctrinal  limitations  have  been 
discarded.  But  in  1829,  and  for  long  afterward, 
such  freedom  would  have  been  thought  not  only 
dangerous  but  fatal.  The  Unitarian  churches, 
as  a  rule,  had  their  creeds  no  less  than  the  or- 
thodox ;  the  difference  between  them  was  that, 
whereas  the  latter  were  generally  elaborate  and 
conservative,  the  former  were  generally  liberal 
and  simple.  For  their  time,  the  conditions  of 
admission  to  the  Meadville  church  were  rather 
mild. 

Members  might  be  expelled  only  for  gross 
immorality,  and  after  full  trial.  Two  elders  ^ 
were,  with  the  minister,  to  attend  to  the  spirit- 
,ual,  and  a  Committee  of  Management  of  three 
to  the  temporal  affairs  of  the  church.  It  is  sig- 
nificant that  the  double  organization  of  church 
and  society,  which  was  all  but  universal  in  New 
England,  was  not  introduced  here.  There  was 
but  one  organization,  and  that  the  church ;  and 

*  A  Presbyterian  feature.  Mr.  Huidekoper's  whole  ecclesias- 
tical experience  in  Holland  and  in  America  had  been  in  churches 
of  the  Presbyterian  polity. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  21 

its  basis  of  membership,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a 
religious  one.  Significant  also  was  the  name, 
"  The  Independent  Congregational  Church  of 
Meadville."  For,  although  its  members  were 
in  belief  avowedly  Unitarian,  that  word  had 
been  used  but  little  as  the  name  of  a  denomi- 
nation. Channing's  Baltimore  sermon,  which 
first  clearly  defined  to  Unitarians  their  distinc- 
tive position,  was  not  preached  until  1819;  and 
the  American  Unitarian  Association,  the  first 
attempt  to  give  liberal  Christianity  definite  co- 
herence, was  not  founded  until  1825.  There 
were  not  half  a  dozen  churches  in  America  that 
had  taken  "  Unitarian  "  as  a  denominational 
name ;  ^  for,  although  there  was  abundant  dis- 
position to  accept  a  new  theology,  there  was  lit- 
tle to  form  a  new  sect.  The  constitution  was 
originally  subscribed  by  thirty-two  persons,  and 
served  until  1840,  when,  as  we  shall  see,  it  was 
thoroughly  revised. 

Mr.  Gilbert,  though  not  a  brilliant  preacher, 
was  distinguished  for  his  practical  sense,  was  in- 

^  So  obnoxious  was  the  name  that  when  the  church  at  Phila- 
delphia adopted  it  in  181 3,  the  most  advanced  men  of  our  faith 
at  Boston,  the  fountain  head  of  American  Unitarianism,  remon- 
strated with  their  brethren  at  Philadelphia,  and  counseled  them 
to  abstain  from  the  use  of  so  unpopular  a  designation. 


^ 


22  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

dustrious  and  faithful,  genuine  and  sincere,  and 
entirely  devoted  to  his  calling.  He  left  Mead- 
ville  in  April,  1830,  and  returned  to  New  Eng- 
land. He  held  pastorates  at  Harvard,  West 
Newton,  and  Lincoln,  Mass.,  and  died  at  West 
Newton,  January  5,  1879,  aged  seventy-eight 
years.  In  May,  1830,  Mr.  Gilbert  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Ephraim  Peabody,  a  graduate  of 
Bowdoin  College  and  of  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School,  who  not  only  preached  every  Sunday 
in  the  Court  House,  but  often  held  services  in 
neighboring  schoolhouses,  especially  in  what  is 
now  known  as  the  Cotton  schoolhouse,  west  of 
town,  or  on  pleasant  afternoons  in  the  maple 
grove  near  by,  and  sometimes  in  the  Methodist 
church  out  on  the  State  road,  east  of  town. 

During  his  year's  stay  here,  Mr.  Peabody, 
with  the  purpose  of  making  the  Unitarian  faith 
better  known  to  the  people  of  this  "  benighted 
section  of  our  country,"  as  a  correspondent  of 
the  "  Christian  Register  "  called  it,  and  of  de- 
fending it  against  the  attacks  that  continued  to 
be  made  upon  it,  projected  a  small  monthly 
periodical  to  be  published  at  Meadville,  and 
called  the  "  Unitarian  Essayist,"  of  which  he 
was  to  be  the  editor.     It  was  published  for  two 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  23 

years  from  January,  1831  ;  and  as  Mr.  Peabody 
soon  removed  from  town,  it  was  afterward  ed- 
ited, and  in  great  part  written,  by  Mr.  Huide- 
koper  himself.  A  paragraph  from  the  first  edi- 
torial gives  us  an  idea  of  the  opposition  which 
the  church  had  still  to  meet.  "  But  in  this  part 
of  the  country  our  opinions,  though  perpetually 
spoken  against,  are  to  the  great  majority  abso- 
lutely unknown,  or  known  only  through  the 
medium  of  prejudice.  The  consequence  is  that 
we  are  subjected  to  every  kind  of  unjust  judg- 
ment and  misrepresentation.  There  is  hardly 
an  error  among  those  which  we  esteem  the 
most  dangerous,  which  we  are  not  sometimes 
accused  of  believing,  nor  a  truth  which  we  value 
as  among  the  most  precious  truths  of  revela- 
tion, which  we  are  not  accused  of  rejecting.  .  .  . 
We  are  made  the  subjects  of  ceaseless  denun- 
ciation and  anathema ;  we  are  denied  even  the 
name  of  Christians ;  men  are  warned  from  our 
books  and  our  places  of  worship  as  from  the 
contamination  of  a  brothel,  and  the  doors  of  our 
churches  are  described  as  the  entrances  to 
hell"' 

^  The  Essayist  contains  (ii.  31)  a  noteworthy  bit  of  contro- 
versy, in  an  open  letter  of  the  editor  to  the  Rev.  John  W.  James, 


24  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

The  two  years'  numbers  of  the  "  Essayist " 
make  a  small  duodecimo  volume  of  about  340 
pages,  and  the  contents  are,  in  the  main,  digni- 
fied and  scholarly  discussions  of  the  chief  points 
of  Christian  doctrine  on  which  Unitarians  dif- 
fered from  their  orthodox  opponents.  To  this 
day,  few  more  effective  discussions  of  the  points 
at  issue  have  been  published.  The  subscription 
list  contained  some  340  names,  of  which  eighty- 
five  were  from  Meadville.  Read  and  discussed 
as  thoroughly  as  such  things  were  in  those 
days,  the  "  Essayist "  must  have  had  a  very  im- 
portant influence  in  this  community  in  persuad- 
ing such  as  were  open  to  persuasion,  as  well  as 
in  confirming  the  faith  of  those  already  Unita- 
rians. Its  place  was  in  a  measure  filled  after- 
ward by  the  "  Western  Messenger,"  published 
at  Cincinnati  and  at  Louisville,  1836-41,  to 
which  Mr.  Huidekoper  contributed  twenty- 
eight  articles,  mostly  on  theological  subjects. 

rector  of  the  Episcopal  church,  respecting*  an  aggravated  case 
of  the  way  in  which  Unitarians  were  sometimes  treated.  Mr. 
James  had  attempted  to  deprive  a  young  lady  of  her  liveli- 
hood for  no  other  reason  than  that  she  was  a  Unitarian.  Her 
name,  not  mentioned  in  the  letter,  was  Miss  Jerusha  Dewey,  sis- 
ter of  the  Rev.  Orville  Dewey.  She  had  come  to  Meadville  to 
establish  a  school  for  "  young  females,"  and  joined  the  church 
October  2,  183 1. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  25 

The  initial  work  of  controversy,  unpleasant, 
but  unavoidable  in  the  circumstances,  was  now 
pretty  well  accomplished  ;  although,  as  we  shall 
see,  it  was  later  revived  from  time  to  time.  The 
young  church,  having  established  itself  in  the 
community,  had  peace  for  a  season,  and  its 
neighbors  accommodated  themselves  to  it  as 
best  they  could.  Mr.  Peabody  was  an  engaging 
preacher,  an  estimable  pastor,  and  a  brilliant 
writer,  scholarly,  and  singularly  modest.  He 
was  much  beloved  at  Meadville,  but,  finding  his 
double  duties  as  teacher  and  minister  too  ardu- 
ous, he  left  in  July,  1831,  to  become  minister 
of  the  church  at  Cincinnati  which  had  been 
formed  the  previous  year.  He  went  later  to  the 
church  at  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  and  became  at 
length  the  distinguished  minister  of  King's 
Chapel  in  Boston,  where  he  died  November  28, 
1856,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-nine,  universally 
loved  and  mourned. 

The  fourth  minister  of  the  church  was  the 
Rev.  George  Nichols,  a  graduate  of  Harvard 
College,  who  arrived  fresh  from  the  Divinity 
School  in  July,  1831.  Up  to  this  time,  none 
of  the  ministers  of  the  church  had  been  an  or- 
dained clergyman,  and  the  members  had  there- 


26  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

fore  been  deprived  of  the  ordinances  of  Baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper.*  To  supply  this  want, 
Mr.  Nichols  was,  at  the  request  of  the  church, 
ordained  as  an  evangelist  at  Cambridge  just 
before  his  departure  for  Meadville.  This  church 
was  Mr.  Nichols's  only  charge.  He  left  Mead- 
ville in  July,  1832,  and  afterward  became  liter- 
ary critic  for  the  University  Press  at  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  where  he  died  July  6, 1882,  aged  seventy- 
three  years.  It  was  during  his  ministry,  in  the 
winter  of  1831-32,  that  Miss  Margaret  Shippen 
— "  Aunt  Shippen,"  as  she  was  affectionately 
called  —  organized  the  first  Sunday-school  in 
her  own  home,  which  stood  where  the  present 
minister's  house  stands,  and  was  afterward 
given  to  the  church  for  a  parsonage.  The 
school  at  first  met  afternoons  in  the  north  room 
of  the  building,  but  later  in  the  Court  House 
before  the  morning  service.  The  school  was  but 

1  In  1 83 1,  Benjamin  Bake  well  of  Pittsburg  presented  the 
church  a  glass  loving-cup  of  his  own  manufacture.  A  single 
cup  of  this  kind  used  to  be  passed  round  the  table  to  the  com- 
municants under  the  Rev.  John  Campbell's  ministry  at  Pitts- 
burg ;  and  the  same  practice  was  followed  at  the  Lord's  Supper 
when  observed  here,  while  the  members  of  the  church  sat  about 
the  long  lawyers*  table  within  the  bar  in  the  Court  House.  The 
cup  is  still  in  existence. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  27 

small,  and  its  early  teachers  were  chiefly  mem- 
bers of  the  Huidekoper,  Cullum,  and  Shippen 
families. 

Mr.  Nichols  was  immediately  succeeded  by 
his  classmate,  the  Rev.  Alanson  Brigham,  who, 
like  his  predecessor,  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard 
College,  and  was  ordained  in  Boston  before 
coming  west.  He  was  a  man  of  unusual  mod- 
esty of  deportment,  urbane  in  manner,  amia- 
ble in  disposition,  with  a  strong  sense  of  duty, 
and  had  won  reputation  as  a  scholar.  He  en- 
deared himself  deeply  to  the  people.  After 
one  year's  preaching  here,  he  went  east  for  a 
summer  vacation,  and  had  returned  to  teach 
one  year  more  in  Mr.  Huidekoper's  family,  after 
which  he  was  to  devote  himself  exclusively  to 
the  care  of  the  church.  But  he  fell  ill  of  ty- 
phus fever,  and  died  at  Pomona  Hall  August 
24,  1833,  aged  thirty  years.  His  remains,  at 
first  buried  in  the  grounds  at  Pomona,  now  lie 
in  the  Theological  School  lot  in  Greendale 
Cemetery.* 

1  The  rector  of  the  Episcopal  church  declined  to  attend  Mr. 
Brigham's  funeral,  on  the  ground  that  he  could  not  recognize 
him  as  a  Christian.  The  Methodist  minister  was  then  applied 
to,  and  conducted  the  funeral  services. 


28  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

After  Mr.  Brigham's  death  there  was  for 
some  time  no  regular  preacher.  The  members 
of  the  church,  however,  continued  to  meet  reg- 
ularly as  usual,  one  of  them  reading  a  sermon  ; 
and  this  custom  has  ever  since  been  followed  in 
the  absence  of  a  minister.  During  the  ensuing 
year,  the  tutor  at  Mr.  Huidekoper's,  and  the 
last  of  their  number,  was  John  Sullivan  Dwight; 
but,  although  he  afterward  entered  the  Unita- 
rian ministry  (subsequently  becoming  one  of 
the  Brook  Farm  company,  and  a  distinguished 
musical  critic),  he  did  not  preach  while  here. 

From  the  time  of  its  organization,  the  church 
had  continued  to  grow  rapidly.  The  congre- 
gation now  numbered  nearly  two  hundred, 
"  among  whom  are  to  be  reckoned  (not  to  speak 
invidiously),"  says  a  correspondent  of  the  time, 
"  a  full  proportion,  at  the  least,  of  the  truly  intel- 
ligent and  devout  of  the  village."  It  was  there- 
fore determined  to  employ  the  exclusive  services 
of  a  minister  for  the  church  ;  and  Henry  Au- 
gustus Walker,  just  graduated  from  the  Har- 
vard Divinity  School,  who  had  happened  to  pass 
through  Meadville  and  to  preach  for  Mr.  Brig- 
ham  during  his  last  illness,  was  called ;  but  the 
call,  which   there  was  at  one  time  reason  to 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  29 

believe  would  be  accepted,  was  finally  declined. 
Efforts  continued  to  be  made  to  find  a  suitable 
person,  but  none  was  found  until  the  autumn 
of  the  next  year ;  meanwhile  there  were  two 
temporary  supplies.  Amos  Dean  Wheeler, 
formerly  of  Salem,  Mass.,  was  engaged  as  suc- 
cessor to  Mr.  Brigham,  at  a  salary  of  ^500.  He 
preached  here  for  three  months  early  in  1834, 
but  for  some  reason  did  not  remain  longer.  He 
was  a  man  modest  and  grave,  deeply  devout, 
and  of  blameless  life ;  not  a  brilliant  preacher, 
but  an  indefatigable  worker,  of  large  natural 
endowments  and  fine  scholarship.  His  subse- 
quent ministry  was  spent  in  the  State  of  Maine, 
where  he  died,  at  Topsham,  June  30,  1876,  aged 
seventy-two. 

After  him  William  Henry  Channing  (nephew 
of  William  Ellery  Channing)  preached  from 
May  to  August  or  September,  1834.  Naturally 
a  mystic,  somewhat  erratic  in  his  course,  he  was 
devoted  to  every  sort  of  philanthropy  and  re- 
form. In  the  pulpit  he  was  deeply  spiritual, 
both  scholarly  and  eloquent.  He  became  much 
beloved  during  his  short  stay  here,  and  was  a 
man  of  perhaps  as  brilliant  talents,  and  became 
subsequently  as  celebrated,  as  any  of  all  those 


30  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

that  have  ministered  to  this  church.  He  held 
numerous  important  parishes  in  this  country 
and  in  England,  and  died  in  London,  Decem- 
ber 23,  1884,  at  the  age  of  seventy-four. 

After  this  year  of  broken  ministry,  the  Rev. 
John  Quinby  Day,  a  graduate  of  Bowdoin  Col- 
lege and  of  the  Harvard  Divinity  School,  who 
had  been  ordained  at  Portland,  Maine,  the  month 
previous,  arrived  here  at  the  beginning  of  Oc- 
tober, 1834.  After  a  three  months'  trial,  the 
church  extended  to  him  a  formal  call,  which  he 
accepted,  becoming  its  first  minister  regularly 
settled  and  devoting  his  entire  time  to  its  ser- 
vice, at  a  salary  of  $500.  The  earlier  preachers 
had  been  paid  a  small  salary  in  addition  to  what 
they  received  as  tutors.  Among  the  events  of 
Mr.  Day's  ministry  was  the  visit  of  Miss  Harriet 
Martineau  to  Meadville ;  and  a  minute  in  the 
scanty  church  records  of  the  time  reads  thus : 
"  1834,  Nov.  2.  Sacrament  administered.  Har- 
riet Martineau  of  London  communed  with 
us."^ 

^  See  her  Autobiography,  London,  1877,  iii.  ii8,  119,  for  an 
entry  i'rom  her  journal  dated  Meadville,  October  29,  1834.  She 
was  the  guest  of  Mr.  Huidekoper.  "  The  C's  "  and  the  "  Mr. 
D."  referred  to  were  no  doubt  the  Cullums  and  Mr.  Day.  Her 
visit  was  from  October  29  or  earlier,  to  November  2,  or  later. 


sJ 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  31 

The  great  achievement  of  Mr.  Day's  ministry 
was  the  building  and  dedication  of  the  church 
in  1836.  Plans  looking  toward  it  had  been  ini- 
tiated as  long  previously  as  1829,  the  year  in 
which  the  church  was  organized.  In  that  year 
a  circular  letter,  signed  by  the  leading  members 
of  the  church,  had  been  sent  to  the  ministers 
of  most  of  the  New  England  churches,  request- 
ing their  aid  in  building  a  house  of  worship. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Merrick,  writing  to  the  "  Christian 
Register  "  to  second  this  appeal,  had  said  (for- 
getting the  church  at  Pittsburg)  that  this  church 
was  the  "  only  one  founded  on  our  principles  in 
the  Western  country ;  and  from  the  situation 
and  rapid  growth  of  the  town,  is  one  that  pro- 
mises to  be  extensively  useful  in  propagating 
liberal  sentiments  through  those  regions."  He 
spoke  of  the  society  as  "  comparatively  poor,"  but 
"  composed  of  active  and  zealous  individuals." 

The  wise  forethought  of  Miss  Margaret  Ship- 
pen  had  secured  a  favorable  location  for  the 
church.  In  1830  she  had  bought  the  three 
lots  comprising  the  present  church  property 
at  the  southeast  corner  of  the  Public  Square. 
They  had  been  a  part  of  the  original  David 
Mead  estate,  and  had  later  come  into  the  pos- 


32  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

session  of  Crawford  County.  The  county  com- 
missioners had  conveyed  them  in  1830  to  John 
E.  Smith  and  David  McFadden,  in  part  pay- 
ment for  building  the  new  Court  House ;  and 
they,  in  turn,  to  Miss  Shippen.  On  August  20, 
1835,  Miss  Shippen  conveyed  a  portion  of  this 
property,  measuring  88  feet  on  Chestnut  street, 
and  105  feet  on  Hundred-foot  street,  as  Main 
street  was  then  called,  to  five  trustees  ^  for  the 
benefit  of  the  church ;  the  lot  being  in  reality 
the  joint  gift  of  herself  and  H.  J.  Huidekoper. 
In  the  following  month  active  steps  were  taken 
for  the  erection  of  a  church  building,  which 
Edward  Derby  built  for  the  contract  price  of 
$3500.  The  most  of  the  money  necessary  was 
subscribed  here;  though  substantial  gifts  came 
from  members  of  the  church  at  Philadelphia. 
It  does  not  appear  that  anything  resulted  from 
the  appeal  to  the  churches  in  New  England. 

The  plans  for  the  church,  which  were  rigidly 
adhered  to,  were  drawn  by  Captain  (later  Gen- 
eral) George  W.  Cullum,  U.  S.  A.,  a  son  of  the 
church,  who,  by  the  way,  also  drew  the  plans 
for  a   much   more   famous   structure   in    Fort 

1  The  trustees  were  H.  J.  Huidekoper,  Octavius   Hastings, 
Horace  Cullum,  Alfred  Huidekoper,  and  Edgar  Huidekoper. 


o 

2 
w 

H 

z 

K 
U 
ai 
D 

X 

u 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  33 

Sumter.  The  Doric  style  of  architecture,  to 
which  it  strictly  conforms  even  in  details,  was 
much  in  vogue  for  churches  during  that  pe- 
riod ;  ^  and  the  plans  for  this  church  closely 
resembled  those  of  the  Unitarian  church  at 
Philadelphia.  Externally  the  church  was  of 
red  brick,  with  white  pillars,  cornice,  and  pedi- 
ment.^ In  the  interior  the  walls  were  of  a  pale 
gray,  and  the  ceiling  flat  and  plain.  The  pews, 
all  of  which  were  furnished  with  doors,  were 
painted  white  as  at  present ;  and  the  seats  were 
five  inches  higher  and  two  or  three  inches  nar- 
rower than  they  are  now,  so  that  they  were 
most  uncomfortable,  and  footstools  were  indis- 
pensable to  all  but  the  tallest  persons.  The 
minister's  seat,  in  the  alcove  where  the  organ 
now  is,  was  complained  of  by  two  generations 
of  preachers  as  being  a  very  purgatory  on  a  hot 
day  in  summer.  The  pulpit  was  several  steps 
higher  than  it  is  to-day.  The  church  was  lighted 
from  a  chandelier  of  whale-oil  lamps  hung  in 

^  A  writer  in  the  Christian  Register  (November  15,  1845) 
quotes  a  feeling  then  somewhat  current,  that "  Gothic  architecture 
belongs  to  the  Trinitarian  Church,  and  the  severe  majesty  of  the 
Doric  would  better  suit  the  simplicity  of  the  Unitarian  faith." 

^  The  church  was  subsequently  painted  gray  ;  and  in  1892  it 
was  repainted  red,  with  brown  pillars,  cornice,  and  pediment. 


34  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

the  center  of  the  room  and  by  other  hanging 
lamps.  The  pulpit  lamps  were  the  gift  of 
Benjamin  Bakewell  of  Pittsburg.  Heat  was 
furnished  by  two  large  wood-stoves  standing  in 
the  rear  corners  of  the  room,  which  was  entered 
by  a  single  center  door.  In  the  gallery  there 
was  a  pipe  organ  which  had  been  presented  by 
the  young  Unitarian  church  at  Buffalo.  The 
singing  was  furnished  by  a  voluntary  chorus 
choir,  and  the  hymn-book  was  Greenwood's 
"  Collection  of  Psalms  and  Hymns  for  Chris- 
tian Worship." 

Five  days  before  the  dedication  of  the  church, 
the  pews  were  auctioned  off  to  the  subscribers 
to  the  building  fund,  as  shareholders,  and  to 
others ;  and  on  Saturday,  August  20,  1836,  at 
II  o'clock,  this  church,  the  second  Unitarian 
one  in  western  Pennsylvania,  which  was  said 
to  be,  as  it  has  always  been,  "  much  admired 
for  its  chaste  style  and  classic  symmetry,"  was 
"  dedicated  to  the  service  of  the  God  and  Father 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  The  order  of  the 
service  was  as  follows  :  — 

1.  Organ  Voluntary. 

2.  Prayer  by  the  Rev.  James  Thurston,  Cam- 

bridge, Mass. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  35 

3.  Reading  of  the  Scriptures,  Mr.  Thurston. 

4.  Anthem,  "  Denmark." 

5.  Dedicatory  Prayer  by  the  Pastor,  the  Rev. 

John  Q.  Day. 

6.  Dedicatory    Hymn,    "  O   bow   thine   ear, 

Eternal  One." 

7.  Sermon,   by   the    Rev.    Henry    Coleman, 

Deerfield,  Mass.;  text,  Eph.  ii.  18-22.^ 

8.  Hymn. 

9.  Concluding  Prayer,  by  the  Rev.  Ephraim 

Peabody,  Cincinnati,  O. 

10.  Hymn,  "  Lord,  dismiss  us  with  thy  bless- 
ing."       _ 

11.  Benediction. 

The  church  thus  so  firmly  established  and 
well  housed  had  now  some  sixty  members,  in- 
cluding a  goodly  number  of  persons  of  influence 
in  the  village.  Nor  is  it  to  be  supposed  that 
in  promoting  its  prosperity  thus  far  the  women 
of  it  had  had  any  mean  part.  From  the  begin- 
nings of  the  church  they  had  met  in  each  other's 
houses  to  sew  on  summer  afternoons,  while 
in  the  winter  they  sewed  after  tea  in  the  even- 

^  The  sermon  was  an  excellent  presentation  of  the  position 
the  church  was  founded  to  maintain.  It  was  published  in  pam- 
phlet form,  by  request  of  the  church. 


36  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

ing,  when  the  men  of  the  church  usually 
joined  them.  At  a  later  date  suppers  were 
served  at  these  meetings,  while  a  tradition  was 
established  from  the  first,  which  has  ever  since 
been  adhered  to  :  not  to  sew  for  profit,  but  only 
for  the  poor. 

Meadville  had  now  grown  to  have  a  popula- 
tion of  about  1 300 ;  and,  in  addition  to  the  sin- 
gle Presbyterian  church  which  we  found  at  the 
beginning  of  our  history,  the  Episcopalians  had 
built  one  in  1828,  the  Baptists  in  1833,  the 
Methodists  and  Cumberland  Presbyterians  in 
1834,  thus  making  this  church  building  the 
sixth  in  order. 

The  church  reached  and  maintained  a  very 
prosperous  condition  under  Mr.  Day's  ministry. 
While  he  was  well  liked  in  other  respects,  how- 
ever, he  was  not  considered  particularly  success- 
ful as  a  preacher  ;  and,  realizing  his  limitations 
in  this  direction,  he  resigned  September  i,  1837, 
and  went  away,  bearing  with  him  the  good-will 
of  the  parish.  He  sought  no  other  charge,  but 
became  a  teacher  at  Medford,  Mass.,  and  event- 
ually an  editor  at  Portland,  Maine,  where  he 
died,  March  5,  1884,  aged  seventy-four  years. 

Mr.  Day  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Henry 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  37 

Emmons,  from  Nashua,  N.  H.,  who  arrived 
here  in  December,  1837,  and  served  at  a  salary 
of  $700,  a  higher  sum  than  had  heretofore  been 
paid. 

During  Mr.  Emmons's  ministry  (May  10, 
1840)  a  new  constitution  was  adopted  for  the 
church  in  place  of  the  original  one.  It  was 
considerably  more  strict  in  form  and  details 
than  the  first  one,  and  appears  to  have  been 
copied  after  one  of  the  constitutions  then  com- 
mon in  New  England ;  for  it  introduced,  in  a 
veiled  form,  the  distinction  between  members 
of  the  church  and  members  of  the  society.  It 
was  also  required  that  the  names  of  new  mem- 
bers be  previously  presented  in  writing  and 
voted  upon  by  the  church ;  and  that  those  that 
joined  should  assent  to  a  rather  elaborate  cove- 
nant, containing  a  creed  less  simple  than  that 
at  first  required.  Although  all  the  members  of 
the  church  signed  this  constitution,  yet  some  of 
its  provisions  were  found  so  embarrassing  in 
practice  that  they  were  never  actually  observed ; 
and  after  four  years  a  second  revision  was  made. 

Mr.  Emmons,  writing  to  the  "  Christian  Re- 
gister "  in  1842,  says,  "We  are  insulated  — 
have  no  intercourse  with  other  parishes ;  never, 


38  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

or  very  seldom,  see  even  a  traveling  brother 
minister,  or  missionary.  We  are  surrounded 
by  opponents  active  and  efficient,  envious  of 
each  other,  yet  combined  against  us.  .  .  .  Not- 
withstanding, we  hold  our  own,  and  gradually 
increase.  Several  families  have  joined  them- 
selves to  us  during  the  last  year.  And  what 
increase  we  have  is  from  intelligent  and  firm 
materials.  .  .  .  Our  society  sustains  itself  well 
and  vigorously,  but  has  as  much  to  labor  under 
in  doing  this,  as  respects  pecuniary  means,  as 
it  can  well  bear."  He  also  speaks  of  the  need 
of  tracts  for  distribution,  and  a  large  number  of 
them  was  accordingly  sent  him  by  the  Book 
and  Pamphlet  Society  at  Boston. 

The  period  of  Mr.  Emmons's  ministry  here 
was  one  of  vigorous  missionary  activity  on  the 
part  of  the  church.  During  the  most  of  the 
year  there  were  morning  and  evening  services 
in  the  church,  as  there  had  been  under  Mr. 
Day ;  and  in  the  summer  season  services  were 
held  more  or  less  frequently  in  the  surrounding 
country,  within  a  radius  of  from  five  to  twelve 
miles ;  and  at  several  of  these  preaching  stations 
Sunday-schools  were  gathered.  In  the  autumn 
of  1 84 1  a  school  of  some  thirty  or  forty  mem- 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  39 

bers  was  thus  formed  at  a  schoolhouse  in  what 
was  then  Vernon  (now  Union)  township,  about 
three  and  a  half  miles  south  of  Meadville  on  the 
Mercer  Pike,  and  was  maintained  for  about  four 
years.  The  teachers  were  from  the  church,  and 
in  order  to  take  them  out  to  the  school  on  Sun- 
day afternoons  Mr.  Huidekoper  used  to  send  his 
carriage  —  an  old  conveyance  famous  in  its  time, 
which  had  been  brought  from  Philadelphia  in 
18 1 2,  and  was  the  second  carriage  ever  brought 
to  Meadville.  There  being  no  public  school  in 
that  neighborhood,  some  of  the  classes  used  to 
pursue  studies  in  English  as  well  as  to  receive 
religious  instruction.  By  the  next  season  the 
attendance  at  this  school,  under  the  stimulus  of 
a  gift  of  library  books  from  the  Sunday-school 
at  Brighton,  Mass.,  had  increased  to  seventy  or 
eighty,  and  many  walked  three  or  four  miles  to 
attend  it.  In  the  summer  the  school  was  held 
in  a  grove  near  by,  and  preaching  often  followed 
the  lessons.  Early  in  the  summer  of  1842  an- 
other Sunday-school  of  fifty  scholars  was  easily 
gathered  out  on  the  State  Road  in  Mead  town- 
ship, about  three  miles  east  of  town  ;  and 
preaching  services  were  also  held  there.^     And 

^  The  members  of  another  church  tried  to  break  up  one  of 


40  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

in  midsummer  of  the  same  year  yet  another 
school  was  organized  five  miles  beyond  the  one 
first  mentioned,  with  some  fifty  scholars,  and 
still  another  resulted  at  a  greater  distance  yet.^ 
Aside  from  the  good  thus  directly  accomplished, 
some  portion  of  the  church's  later  membership 
resulted  from  these  early  missionary  efforts. 

Every  year,  on  the  fourth  of  July,  the  mem- 
bers of  these  several  Sunday-schools,  with  their 
near  relatives  or  friends,  would  meet  for  their 
annual  festival  at  Pomona  Hall.  There  was  a 
bountiful  collation  spread  on  great  tables  under 
the  trees  on  the  lawn  ;  then  came  a  prayer,  a 
hymn,  and  an  address ;  and  afterward  all  sorts 
of  games,  a  great  romp  for  the  children,  and  last 
of  all  a  supper.  Those  were  famous  occasions, 
and  they  are  fondly  remembered  to  this  day  by 
many  whose  hair  has  long  since  grown  gray. 

By  this  time  the  feeling  of  the  other  churches 
toward  the  Unitarians  seems  visibly  to  have 
softened.     In  the  summer  of  1842  our  Sunday- 

these  schools  because  it  was  conducted  by  Unitarians  ;  but  our 
school  was  too  popular  among  the  country  folk  to  be  thus  in- 
jured. 

^  At  this  time  or  later,  perhaps  in  Mr.  Stebbins's  ministry, 
there  was  another  school  conducted  on  Dunham's  Flats,  north- 
west of  town. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  41 

school  was  invited  for  the  first  time  to  join  in 
the  festivities  of  the  union  village  Sunday-school 
celebration,  from  which  it  had  previously  been 
excluded.  Our  scholars  attended  to  the  num- 
ber of  230.  Late  in  the  autumn  of  the  same 
year,  while  the  Pittsburg  Presbyterian  Synod 
was  sitting  here,  two  of  the  ministers  attend- 
ing it,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Carr  and  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Lee,  accepted  invitations  to  occupy  our  pul- 
pit. "  The  reign  of  bigotry  is  passing  away," 
wrote  a  correspondent  to  one  of  the  papers, 
commenting  on  this  significant  occurrence. 

Mr.  Emmons  was  a  man  of  energy  in  his 
profession,  a  "  Channing  Unitarian,"  a  preacher 
simple  and  earnest,  a  good  pastor,  and  a  man 
of  gentle  and  kindly  spirit.  His  ministry  here 
was  harmonious  and  prosperous.  In  1843, 
however,  hard  times  made  it  necessary  to  re- 
duce his  salary,  and  feeling  it  to  be  no  longer 
sufiicient,  he  resigned,  and  went  away  at  the 
end  of  August.  The  dissolution  of  the  con- 
nection was  accomplished  with  the  most  kindly 
feelings  on  both  sides.  This  ministry  of  five 
years  and  eight  or  nine  months  was  the  longest 
that  the  church  has  enjoyed  in  its  entire  his- 
tory.    Mr.  Emmons  went  from  here  to  Ver- 


42  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

non,  N.  Y.,  where  he  preached  for  about  twelve 
years.  He  subsequently  lost  the  use  of  his 
voice,  and  was  obliged  to  abandon  the  pulpit. 
Later  he  was  for  twenty-five  years  the  secretary 
of  the  Home  for  Aged  Women  in  Revere 
street,  Boston.  He  died  on  the  same  day  as 
Mrs.  Emmons  at  Short  Off,  N.  C,  November  19, 
1899,  aged  ninety-one  years. 

After  Mr.  Emmons's  resignation,  efforts  were 
made  for  some  months  to  obtain  another  min- 
ister from  New  England,  but  to  no  purpose. 
Meanwhile,  the  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke  of 
Louisville,  Ky.,  who  chanced  to  be  on  a  visit 
here,^  supplied  the  pulpit  gratuitously  until  late 
in  October.  It  was  during  this  short  minis- 
try of  Mr.  Clarke  that,  on  Thursday  evening, 
October  12,  1843,  Frederic  Huidekoper  was  or- 
dained in  the  church  as  an  evangelist,  the  Rev. 
George  W.  Hosmer  of  Buffalo  making  the  or- 
daining prayer  and  charge,  and  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Clarke  preaching  the  sermon  and  extending  the 
right  hand  of  fellowship.  The  results  accom- 
plished during  Mr.  Emmons's  ministry  had 
shown  what  large  opportunities  for  service  there 
were  in  the  surrounding  country ;  and  it  was 

1  He  had  married  Miss  Anna  Huidekoper,  August  15,  1839. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  43 

Mr.  Huidekoper's  original  intention  to  occupy 
himself  as  minister-at-large  in  the  vicinity. 
This  he  did  for  a  short  time ;  but  the  Theo- 
logical School  founded  in  the  following  year 
presently  absorbed  all  his  energies. 

Late  in  October,  1843,  Elder  Elihu  Goodwin 
Holland  of  the  Christian  Connection,  a  religious 
body  with  which  the  Unitarians  were  then  cul- 
tivating close  relations,  especially  in  the  West, 
was  engaged  to  supply  the  pulpit  for  six  months, 
and  before  the  end  of  that  term  for  another 
equal  period,  at  the  rate  of  $500  a  year.  It 
was  expected  that  he  might  perhaps  stay  in- 
definitely as  minister  of  the  church,  and  at  the 
same  time  assist  the  Rev.  Frederic  Huidekoper 
in  giving  instruction  to  students  in  the  Theo- 
logical School  then  under  consideration,  which 
was  to  receive  both  Unitarians  and  members  of 
the  Christian  Connection  as  students.  But  the 
prospects  for  the  school  presently  grew  so  large 
that  such  an  arrangement  did  not  promise  to 
prove  adequate.  It  was  for  this  reason  that, 
after  a  year  of  satisfactory  service,  in  which  he 
had  won  the  cordial  regard  of  the  congregation, 
Mr.  Holland  resigned  at  the  end  of  September, 
1 844,  to  make  room  for  his  successor. 


44  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

Mr.  Holland,  though  a  man  of  marked  eccen- 
tricities and  not  a  good  pastor,  was  a  fluent 
speaker,  of  very  uncommon  oratorical  gifts. 
He  was  a  fine  scholar,  and  a  thinker  of  marked 
intellectual  power ;  an  author  of  several  books 
of  repute  in  their  time,  and  withal  one  of  the 
ablest  and  most  distinguished  men  in  his  reli- 
gious body  during  his  generation.  After  leav- 
ing Meadville  he  ministered  to  some  of  the 
leading  Christian  churches  in  the  country,  es- 
pecially in  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  and  en- 
joyed fame  as  a  popular  lecturer,  both  at  home 
and  in  Europe.  He  died  December  13,  1878, 
at  Canandaigua,  N.  Y.,  aged  sixty-one  years. 

It  was  considered  important  to  obtain  for  the 
president  of  the  new  school  an  abler  man  than 
could  be  secured  for  the  meager  salary  that  the 
resources  at  hand  allowed.  It  was  arranged, 
therefore,  that  a  salary  of  ^1000  per  annum 
should  be  offered,  to  be  paid  half  by  the  school 
and  half  by  the  church,  and  that  the  incumbent 
should  be  at  once  minister  of  the  church  and 
president  of  the  school.  The  Rev.  Rufus 
Phineas  Stebbins  of  Leominster,  Mass.,  who 
had  been  most  highly  recommended  for  the 
purpose,  was  called  to  fill  the  double  office  for 


w 

-^W^ 


RUFUS  P.  STEBBINS,  D.  D. 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  45 

the  term  of  five  years.  Mr.  Stebbins  arrived 
at  Meadville  early  in  October,  1844,  and  his 
great  energy  and  organizing  powers  immediately 
made  themselves  felt,  not  only  in  the  church, 
but  throughout  the  whole  community.  He  was 
beyond  question  the  most  powerful  and  eloquent 
preacher  whose  ministry  this  church  has  ever 
enjoyed ;  a  controversialist,  upon  occasion,  of 
great  ability,  as  the  local  newspapers  of  the 
time  bear  ample  witness,  he  did  much  to  com- 
mend the  Unitarian  faith  to  the  people  of  the 
community.  His  congregations  doubled  within 
the  first  year;  and  his  Sunday  evening  lectures 
on  "  Unitarianism  "  were  delivered  to  audiences 
that  taxed  the  capacity  of  the  church  to  the  ut- 
most. He  devoted  himself  without  reserve  to 
every  social  or  humanitarian  reform,  was  a  bold 
leader  in  the  cause  of  temperance,  and  was  out- 
spoken in  the  anti-slavery  cause,  at  the  cost  of 
some  antagonism  and  friction  with  parishioners 
or  friends.^ 

In  the  pulpit  the  strength  of  his  convictions 

^  Other  ministers  of  the  church  during  the  period  of  the  anti- 
slavery  conflict,  earnest  in  the  same  cause,  were  Professor  Fol- 
som  and  Mr.  Clarke;  and  Mr.  Huidekoper's  house  was  a  station 
on  the  "  Underground  Railway." 


46  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

led  him  to  be  positive  and  dogmatic  in  temper 
and  tone ;  and  the  moral  standard  of  his  preach- 
ing was  characterized  by  a  favorite  phrase 
among  his  people  as  being  one  of  "  upright  and 
downright  and  perfect  integrity."  It  was  per- 
haps these  characteristics  of  his  that  caused  the 
fires  of  religious  controversy  against  Unitarians 
to  flame  up  at  Meadville  during  his  ministry  as 
they  had  not  done  since  the  earliest  days  of  the 
church's  existence. 

The  controversy  began  with  Mr.  Stebbins's 
Sunday  evening  lectures  on  Unitarian  doctrine, 
to  which  I  have  referred,  and  which  were  deliv- 
ered in  the  winter  of  1847-48.  The  lectures 
were  not  designed  to  stir  up  antagonism,  but 
they  excited  a  popular  interest  so  wide  and  in- 
tense that  the  ministers  of  the  other  churches 
felt  it  necessary  to  reply  to  them  with  counter- 
statements  of  orthodox  doctrine.  Nearly  all 
the  churches  were  drawn  into  the  current, 
sooner  or  later,  and  by  a  more  or  less  tacit  under- 
standing made  common  cause  against  hetero- 
doxy. The  orthodox  side  was  at  first  cham- 
pioned by  the  Rev.  William  M.  Carmichael, 
rector  of  the  Episcopal  church ;  but  he  soon 
proved  himself,  in  public  estimation,  no  match 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  47 

for  Mr.  Stebbins.  The  Rev.  Calvin  Kingsley, 
a  young  man  of  unusual  ability,  then  professor 
in  Allegheny  College,  and  later  bishop  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church,  was  therefore  pre- 
vailed upon  to  conduct  the  one  side  of  what 
speedily  developed  into  a  spirited  running  de- 
bate.^ This  side  now  found  its  main  expression, 
by  common  consent,  in  the  pulpit  of  the  Old 
School  Presbyterian  church,  which  Professor 
Kingsley  was  invited  to  occupy  for  the  purpose. 
If  the  controversy  had  begun  and  ended  with  a 
full  and  dispassionate  discussion  of  the  cardinal 
doctrines  of  theology,  as  seen  from  opposite 
points  of  view,  upon  the  merits  of  which  people 
might  calmly  judge  for  themselves,  it  would 
have  been  well ;  the  air  would  have  been  cleared, 
and  the  ends  of  truth  and  religion  might  have 
been  served.     But,  as  is  wont  to  be  the  case 


1  The  controversy  was  carried  into  print.  Professor  George 
W.  Clarke  of  Allegheny  College  contributed  to  it  a  little  book 
entitled  "  Christ  Crucified  :  or,  a  plain  scriptural  vindication  of 
the  Divinity  and  Redeeming  Acts  of  Christ,  with  a  statement 
and  refutation  of  the  forms  of  Unitarianism  now  most  preva- 
lent." New  York,  1848.  This  was  answered  by  Mr.  Stebbins 
in  a  pamphlet,  "  A  Letter  respecting  a  Work  entitled  *  Christ 
Crucified :  by  George  W.  Clarke,'  addressed  to  a  parishioner." 
Boston,  1849. 


48  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

in  religious  debates,  the  proper  limits  were 
not  observed.  The  controversy  spread  far  and 
wide  through  the  village,  and  became  most 
heated  and  unhappy ;  and  animosities  were 
aroused  which  were  not  only  regretted  as  most 
unfortunate  at  the  time,  but  which  it  has  re- 
quired a  full  fifty  years  to  bury  out  of  memory. 
A  sequel  to  this  controversy,  which  reflected 
the  unhappy  feeling  aroused  by  it,  and  which 
attracted  more  than  local  attention  at  the  time 
it  occurred,  took  place  in  the  summer  of  185 1. 
Mr.  Stebbins  was  invited  by  the  Allegheny  and 
Philo-Franklin  literary  societies  of  Allegheny 
College  to  lecture  before  them  at  the  Com- 
mencement season.  When  this  fact  came  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  college  trustees,  they  de- 
manded that  the  students  withdraw  their  invi- 
tation to  Mr.  Stebbins ;  but  this  they  refused 
to  do.  It  was  therefore  proposed  by  some  of 
the  trustees  to  threaten  with  expulsion  from 
college  all  students  that  should  attend  the  lec- 
ture. This  proposition  was  not  supported  •  by 
the  majority  of  the  board ;  but  the  use  of  a  col- 
lege room  for  the  lecture  was  refused.  Mr. 
Stebbins  accordingly  lectured  before  the  stu- 
dents in  the  Court  House  on  the  evening  of 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  49 

July  I,  his  subject  being  "  Academic  Culture." 
The  overwhelming  sentiment  of  the  people  at 
large  was  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  audience, 
composed  of  persons  of  all  denominations,  was 
the  largest  that  had  ever  assembled  in  the  vil- 
lage. The  Faculty  of  the  College  declined  to 
attend  ;  but  the  Rev.  John  V.  Reynolds,  minis- 
ter of  the  Old  School  Presbyterian  church,  ex- 
pressed his  sympathy  by  offering  the  prayer  and 
pronouncing  the  benediction. 

The  church  gained  greatly  in  numbers  and 
influence  under  Mr.  Stebbins's  ministry,  and 
the  results  of  it  have  not  yet  died  away.  Dur- 
ing this  time  the  church  building  was  repaired, 
in  the  summer  of  1847,  at  a  cost  of  about 
^^225. 

In  order  to  diffuse  the  views  of  liberal  Chris- 
tianity the  more  widely,  Mr.  Stebbins  estab- 
lished in  1852  a  monthly  magazine  called  "  The 
Christian  Repository,"  in  which  Unitarians  and 
members  of  the  Christian  Connection  cooper- 
ated, and  which  was  widely  circulated  through 
the  western  country.  The  magazine  was  con- 
structive in  its  tone,  not  narrowly  sectarian,  and 
was  published  for  one  year,  when  it  was  discon- 
tinued for  lack  of  support. 


50  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

Mr.  Stebbins  was  a  conservative  by  temper- 
ament and  habit.  Life  seemed  so  earnest  to 
him  that  he  could  see  no  time  in  it  for  frivo- 
lous amusements.  He  let  it  be  known  that  he 
deemed  it  an  impropriety  for  people  in  leaving 
church  to  exchange  greetings,  and  he  desired 
them  to  go  promptly  home  in  solemn  medita- 
tion on  things  eternal.  A  man  of  powerful 
physical  frame,  he  was  also  of  so  strong  and 
masterful  a  character  as  sometimes  to  be  con- 
sidered arbitrary  or  dictatorial,  for  he  knew  no 
compromise  of  convictions.  He  was  known 
and  respected  throughout  the  country  as  a  reli- 
gious educator,  and  was  honored  with  the  de- 
gree of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Harvard  in 
185 1  ;  and  he  is  still  widely  and  distinctly  re- 
membered by  the  older  generation  as  a  preacher 
and  lecturer.  At  the  end  of  his  five  years'  term 
he  felt  obliged  to  devote  his  whole  time  to  his 
duties  in  the  Theological  School,  and  resigned 
his  office  as  minister.  He  remained  president 
of  the  school  until  June,  1856,  and  afterward 
held  pastorates  at  Woburn,  Mass.,  Ithaca,  N.  Y., 
and  Newton  Centre,  Mass.  He  died  at  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  August  13,  1885,  aged  seventy- 
five  years. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  51 

The  opening  of  the  Meadville  Theological 
School,  October  i,  1844,  was  an  event  of  great 
importance  and  far-reaching  consequences  to 
this  church.  It  meant  that,  in  addition  to  its 
normal  local  constituency,  the  church  was  to 
enjoy  the  presence  and  support  of  a  constant 
company  of  teachers  and  students.  It  meant 
that  this,  being  the  church  of  the  Theological 
School,  and  having  an  intimate  connection  with 
it,  was  to  be  the  temporary  home  of  half  the 
ministers  of  the  denomination,  to  which,  though 
small,  they  would  ever  look  back  as  being,  in  a 
way,  the  mother  church  of  the  Unitarian  faith 
in  America.  It  meant  that  this  church  was 
to  have  the  privilege  of  training  up  and  send- 
ing forth  to  lives  of  rare  influence  and  useful- 
ness as  ministers'  wives  a  far  greater  number 
of  its  daughters  than  any  other  church  in 
the  denomination,  whether  large  or  small,  can 
claim.^  It  meant  that  this  church  was  to  enjoy 
in  the  frequent  presence  of  distinguished  visit- 
ors advantages  which  many  larger  churches 
might  well  covet ;  and  that  it  was  not  only  to 

^  Up  to  date,  January  i,  1902,  thirty-six  students  of  the  Theo- 
logical School  have  found  their  wives  at  Meadville,  besides  six 
others  who  have  married  young  women  students  in  the  school. 


52  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

have  a  select  company  of  young  people  espe- 
cially fitted  and  willing  to  assist  in  the  various 
lines  of  its  church  work,  but  that  it  was  also  to 
have  the  constant  opportunity  of  doing  much 
for  these  in  return,  opening  homes  and  hearts 
to  them  in  hospitality  and  friendship  which 
should  long  be  remembered  with  warm  grati- 
tude by  many  who  had  been  trained  here. 

In  1845  the  constitution  of  the  church,  which, 
as  has  been  intimated,  had  proved  unsatisfac- 
tory, was  again  revised,  and  given  the  form  that 
it  bears  to-day,  a  return  being  made  to  some- 
thing like  the  early  simplicity  of  organization 
and  of  conditions  of  membership.  A  creed  was 
still  made  a  test  of  membership,  as  follows: 
"  Every  person  of  good  moral  character,  who 
professes  his  belief  in  the  existence  of  God  and 
in  the  divine  mission  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ, 
and  who  declares  it  to  be  his  intention  and  wish 
to  make  the  will  of  God,  and  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  as  revealed  to  us  in  the  Gospels,  the  rule 
of  his  life  and  conduct,  shall  be  admissible  as  a 
member  of  this  church."  Members  were,  as  a 
rule,  to  be  proposed  two  weeks  in  advance,  sub- 
ject to  objection,  and  might  join  either  by  mak- 
ing a  public  profession  or  by  simply  signing  the 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  53 

constitution ;  but  in  important  matters  of  busi- 
ness regular  worshipers  and  contributors  might 
have  a  voice,  even  though  not  formally  mem- 
bers of  the  church.  The  office  of  elder  was 
retained,  though  during  much  of  the  church's 
history  it  has  practically  been  suffered  to  lapse. 
The  minister  was  to  act  as  moderator  in  busi- 
ness meetings  not  concerning  himself.  Bap- 
tism was  to  be  administered  under  such  form 
as  the  minister  might  approve ;  and,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  it  has  upon  several  occasions  been 
administered  to  candidates  for  membership 
under  the  form  of  immersion. 

Mr.  Stebbins  was  followed  in  the  ministry  of 
the  church  by  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Smith  Fol- 
som,  who  was  called  here  from  his  ministry-at- 
large  at  Charlestown,  Mass.,  to  fill  the  double 
office  of  minister  of  the  church  and  professor 
of  Hermeneutics  and  New  Testament  Interpre- 
tation in  the  Theological  School,  with  a  salary 
from  the  church  of  $700.  He  reached  Mead- 
ville  in  September,  1849.  It  was  at  the  begin- 
ning of  his  ministry  that  Mr.  Rush  Rhees 
Shippen,  a  son  of  the  Meadville  church  and 
a  graduate  of  the  Theological  School,  was  or- 
dained  as  an  evangelist,  on  Sunday  evening, 


54  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

November  ii,  1849,  the  officiating  clergymen 
being  President  Stebbins,  Professors  Folsom 
and  Huidekoper,  and  Elder  William  A.  Fuller. 
Professor  Folsom,  before  coming  to  Meadville, 
had  served  nine  years  in  the  ministry  of  the 
orthodox  Congregational  church,  and  had  been 
for  an  equal  term  in  the  Unitarian  fellowship. 
For  a  year  and  more  he  had  been  editor  of  the 
"  Christian  Register."  He  was  a  very  genial 
gentleman,  of  large  social  gifts,  a  man  of  strong 
intellect  and  fine  scholarship,  of  refined  sensi- 
bilities and  an  inexorable  conscience ;  his  es- 
pecial talents,  however,  were  rather  those  of  a 
teacher  than  of  a  preacher  or  of  a  man  of  de- 
cisive action  ;  he  was  therefore  in  marked  con- 
trast to  his  predecessor,  Mr.  Stebbins.  Like 
him  he  resigned,  in  July,  1851,  in  order  to 
devote  his  whole  time  to  his  work  in  the 
Theological  School.  He  remained  here  as 
professor  until  the  summer  of  1861,  when  he 
was  succeeded  by  Professor  George  L.  Cary. 
He  afterward  taught  a  school  for  some  years 
at  Concord,  Mass.,  and  returned  for  a  brief 
period  to  the  fellowship  of  the  orthodox  minis- 
try, and  preached  for  a  short  time  in  orthodox 
churches.     These  relations,  however,  he  found 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  55 

SO  unsatisfactory,  and  so  inconsistent  with  his 
deeper  convictions,  that  he  abandoned  them 
after  a  few  months.  He  published,  in  1869,  a 
"  Translation  of  the  Four  Gospels,"  of  great 
merit,  and  in  1879  received  the  degree  of  Doc- 
tor of  Divinity  from  Dartmouth  College.  He 
died,  November  10,  1890,  at  Asheville,  N.  C, 
aged  eighty-four  years. 

After  Professor  Folsom's  resignation,  it  was 
arranged  that  he  should  still  remain  the  respon- 
sible minister  of  the  church,  but  that  he  should 
be  relieved  by  coadjutors.  Dr.  Stebbins  ap- 
pears to  have  served  in  this  capacity  from  Octo- 
ber, 1852,  to  June,  1853;  and  the  Rev.  James 
Freeman  Clarke,  who,  having  broken  down  in 
health  under  the  arduous  work  of  establishinor 
the  Church  of  the  Disciples  in  Boston,  lived  at 
Meadville  more  or  less  during  the  three  years 
1850-53,  served  in  a  similar  capacity  from 
September,  1851,  to  October,  1852;  and  again, 
after  an  interval  of  travel  in  Europe,  for  ten 
weeks  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1853,  after 
which  he  returned  to  his  work  in  Boston.  At 
the  beginning  of  his  ministry  here,  Mr.  Clarke 
made  this  entry  in  his  diary :  "  To-day  I  begin 
my  work  as  pastor  of  this  Unitarian  society. 


56  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

My  duties  will  be :  on  Sundays,  to  conduct  pub- 
lic worship  and  to  give  lessons  in  the  Sunday- 
school;  on  week-days,  to  visit  the  parish,  hold 
meetings,  Bible-classes,  etc.  The  theological 
students  to  be  members  of  my  society."  He 
taught  gymnastic  exercises  to  the  students  sev- 
eral times  a  week,  and  was  in  many  ways  their 
inspirer  and  friend.  Aside  from  other  impor- 
tant literary  labors,  he  published  while  here  his 
books  on  "  The  Christian  Doctrine  of  the  For- 
giveness of  Sin,"  and  "  The  Christian  Doctrine 
of  Prayer ;  "  and  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  some 
of  the  chapters,  at  least,  in  those  most  helpful 
little  works,  had  their  first  hearing  as  sermons 
from  this  pulpit.  Mr.  Clarke's  preaching  is 
characterized  by  one  who  was  a  member  of  his 
congregation  here  at  that  time  as  being  "  very 
earnest  and  interesting,  full  of  apt  illustrations, 
and  appealing  to  the  deepest  spiritual  expe- 
riences." He  had  a  marked  influence  on  the 
theological  students,  whom  he  did  much  to 
help,  and  was  deeply  interested  in  the  anti-slav- 
ery question,  on  which  he  gave  a  public  ad- 
dress in  the  Court  House,  besides  one  or  more 
in  the  church  on  Sunday  evenings.  It  need 
hardly  be  added  that,  after  his  short  interval  of 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  57 

ministry  at  Meadville,  Mr.  Clarke  became,  as 
minister  of  the  Church  of  the  Disciples  in  Bos- 
ton, one  of  the  most  conspicuous  leaders  of 
Unitarianism  in  America.  He  was  a  man  of 
wide  and  varied  learning,  and  was  honored  with 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Harvard 
in  1863.  He  died  in  Boston,  June  8,  1888, 
aged  seventy-eight  years,  universally  revered 
and  loved. 

After  Mr.  Clarke's  departure  from  Meadville 
an  interval  of  some  seven  months  followed,  dur- 
ing which  there  was  no  settled  minister,  and  the 
pulpit  was  supplied  chiefly  by  students  in  the 
Theological  School,  and  by  professors.  The 
church  then  made  an  innovation  in  April,  1854, 
by  inviting  a  member  of  the  senior  class,  Mr. 
Carlton  Albert  Staples  of  Mendon,  Mass.,  to  be 
its  minister  for  one  year  at  a  salary  of  $650, 
with  the  stipulation  that  he  might  seek  the  as- 
sistance of  the  professors  at  their  common  con- 
venience. He  accepted  the  call  only  after  much 
hesitation,  and  was  ordained  in  the  church  July 
2,  1854,  the  sermon  being  preached  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Edward  Brooks  Hall  of  Providence,  R.  I. 

It  was  a  difficult  and  exacting  position  for  a 
young  and  inexperienced  man  to  undertake,  to 


58  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

preach  twice  a  Sunday  to  a  critical  congrega- 
tion including  his  teachers  and  fellow-students. 
Mr.  Staples  was  a  good  preacher,  however;  the 
church  grew  and  the  Sunday-school  made  a 
great  advance  under  his  ministry,  and  he  proved 
so  generally  satisfactory  that  at  the  end  of  a 
year  he  was  called  to  be  permanent  minister  at 
an  increased  salary.  After  a  year's  time  he 
generously  volunteered  to  give  way  to  some 
one  who  might  teach  in  the  Theological  School 
while  at  the  same  time  minister  of  the  church. 
Such  a  double  relation  was  deemed  inexpedient ; 
and  indeed,  it  has  usually  been  felt,  whenever 
the  minister  of  the  church  has  also  been  pro- 
fessor in  the  Theological  School,  that  sooner  or 
later  the  church  has  suffered  by  the  arrange- 
ment. 

Near  the  beginning  of  Mr.  Staples's  ministry 
the  church  suffered  a  unique  loss  in  the  death, 
on  May  22,  1854,  of  H.  J.  Huidekoper,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-eight.  He  had  been  not  only 
the  founder  of  the  church,  and  its  most  gen- 
erous benefactor  in  material  ways,  but  most 
active  in  everything  pertaining  to  its  welfare. 
He  was  one  of  its  elders  from  its  organization 
to  the  time  of  his  death,  was  for  years  a  constant 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  59 

and  faithful  teacher  in  the  Sunday-schools  in 
both  town  and  country,  and  was  present  with 
his  class  the  last  Sunday  before  his  death.  He 
was,  with  his  son  Frederic,  virtually  the  founder 
of  the  Theological  School,  to  which  he  gave 
generously.  He  was  the  first  president  of  its 
board  of  trustees,  and  his  position  in  the  affairs 
of  the  denomination  at  large  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  he  was  vice-president  of  the  American  Uni- 
tarian Association  from  1837  to  1847.  In  the 
community,  and  throughout  this  whole  region, 
he  was  widely  known  and  deeply  respected  as  a 
man  of  strong  character  and  inflexible  integrity, 
as  well  as  of  courtly  manners  and  a  tender  heart. 
On  the  day  after  Mr.  Staples's  ordination  a 
step  forward  was  taken,  looking  toward  the 
future  growth  of  the  church,  in  the  purchase 
of  the  lot  on  which  the  parish  building  now 
stands.  The  lot  cost  $1000,  which  was  paid 
from  a  fund  contributed  jointly  by  the  Hui- 
dekoper  heirs.  Mr.  Staples  remained  here  until 
March,  1857,  when  he  resigned  in  order  to  enter 
a  larger  sphere  as  colleague  with  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Greenleaf  Eliot  in  the  church  at  St.  Louis. 
He  afterward  ministered  to  important  parishes 
at  Milwaukee,  Chicago,  and   Providence,  and 


6o  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

was  for  a  time  Western  Secretary  of  the  Ameri- 
can Unitarian  Association.  He  has  now  been 
for  some  twenty  years  minister  of  the  church 
at  Lexington,  Mass.,  and  is  to-day  the  oldest 
living  survivor  among  those  who  have  been 
ministers  of  this  church. 

After  Mr.  Staples's  departure  there  was  an 
interim  of  eight  or  nine  months,  during  which 
the  pulpit  was  supplied  mainly  by  President 
Stearns  and  Professor  Folsom  of  the  Theologi- 
cal School.  Within  this  interval  the  old  church 
organ  was  replaced  by  a  new  one  of  twelve 
stops,  at  a  cost  of  $550.  Late  in  the  autumn 
of  1857  the  Rev.  Rush  Rhees  Shippen,  who  was 
at  Meadville  seeking  a  year's  rest  at  his  old 
home,  after  eight  years'  laborious  work  as  min- 
ister of  the  First  Unitarian  Society  at  Chi- 
cago, was  asked  to  supply  the  pulpit  so  long  as 
he  should  stay  here,  and  did  so  for  nine  or  ten 
months.  The  church  had  been  steadily  growing 
for  several  years  past,  and  this  short  ministry 
was  one  of  marked  prosperity.  Mr.  Shippen's 
preaching  awakened  an  unusual  degree  of  in- 
terest, and  was  attended  by  large  congrega- 
tions morning  and  evening,  including  many 
men  who  had  hitherto  remained  aloof  from  the 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  6i 

church/  Mr.  Shippen  was  asked  to  accept  a 
call  as  permanent  minister,  but  declined  to  do 
so.  He  went  from  here  in  September,  1858, 
to  become  minister  of  the  church  at  Worcester, 
Mass.,  where  he  served  thirteen  years.  He  was 
secretary  of  the  American  Unitarian  Associa- 
tion for  ten  years,  minister  of  the  church  in 
Washington  for  fourteen  years,  and  is  now  set- 
tled over  the  church  at  Brockton,  Mass. 

After  Mr.  Shippen,  the  pulpit  was  again  sup- 
plied until  the  end  of  the  year  mainly  by  theo- 
logical students;  and  during  the  year  1859 
chiefly  by  two  members  of  the  faculty  of  the 
Theological  School :  at  the  evening  services  by 
Professor  Folsom,  and  in  the  morning  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Oliver  Stearns,  who  had  been  called 
from  the  church  at  Hingham,  Mass.,  in  1856,  to 
succeed  Dr.  Stebbins  as  president.  Toward 
the  end  of  the  year  the  pulpit  was  also  supplied 
for  several  months  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  J. 
Mumford,  recently  from  the  church  at  Detroit. 

^  It  caused  no  little  comment  at  this  time  that,  during  some 
union  revival  meetings  that  were  being  held  at  Meadville,  the 
conduct  of  them  was  so  managed  that  students  in  the  Theologi- 
cal School,  who  had  at  first  taken  part  in  them,  were  afterward 
excluded  from  doing  so.  The  sole  ground  for  this  action  was 
that  they  were  Unitarians. 


62  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

Pastoral  work,  and  the  consequent  development 
of  the  parish  in  certain  ways,  must  have  suffered 
somewhat  during  these  different  periods  when 
the  church  did  not  receive  the  full  services  of 
a  minister;  but  the  ministrations  of  the  pul- 
pit were  of  an  uncommonly  high  order.  Dr. 
Stearns,  while  not  brilliant  or  magnetic,  was  a 
man  of  great  ability,  and  ranked  as  a  preacher 
among  the  foremost  of  his  time,  thoughtful, 
clear,  and  earnest,  and  of  intense  spirituality. 
He  was  called  from  here  in  1863  to  be  profes- 
sor (and  in  1870,  Dean)  in  the  Harvard  Divin- 
ity School.  He  died  at  Cambridge,  July  18, 
1885,  at  the  age  of  seventy-eight  years. 

The  next  minister  of  the  church  was  the  Rev. 
Richard  Metcalf,  who  had  previously  served  the 
church  at  Bath,  Maine,  and  who,  after  preaching 
here  for  a  month  or  more,  was  called,  January 
23,  i860,  at  a  salary  of  #1000,  the  highest  that 
the  church  had  yet  offered.  At  the  outset  of 
his  ministry  here,  Mr.  Metcalf  aroused  a  good 
deal  of  interest  by  a  series  of  doctrinal  sermons, 
which  were  afterward  published  under  the  title 
of  "  Letter  and  Spirit,"  and  were  considered  in 
their  time  one  of  the  best  presentations  of  the 
Unitarian  position.     Under  him  both  church 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  63 

and  Sunday-school  were  in  a  flourishing  condi- 
tion ;  ^  many  new  members  joined  the  former, 
and  the  latter  received  a  great  impetus*  It  be- 
came largely  a  missionary  school,  and  a  mission 
society  was  connected  with  it,  to  seek  out  the 
poor  and  destitute  of  the  village,  clothe  them, 
and  bring  them  into  the  school.  Monthly  ves- 
per services  were  held,  alternating  with  lectures, 
conference  meetings,  and  Sunday-school  con- 
certs. Mr.  Metcalf's  ministry  was  a  period  of 
kindly  relations  with  other  churches.  At  the 
time  of  the  session  of  the  Western  Unitarian 
Conference  here,  at  the  end  of  June,  1864,  vis- 
iting Unitarian  ministers  were  invited  to  oc- 
cupy the  pulpits  of  the  Methodist  and  Baptist 
churches.  The  Rev.  Alfred  P.  Putnam  of 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.-,  and  the  Rev.  Jacob  G.  Forman 
of  Alton,  111.,  preached  in  the  former  church, 
and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stebbins  and  the  Rev.  Samuel 
B.  Flagg  of  Kalamazoo,  Mich.,  in  the  latter. 
In  the  summer  of  1863  the  church  underwent 

^  Meadville  was  feeling  the  stimulus  that  came  from  the 
opening  of  the  Atlantic  and  Great  Western  Railroad  in  1863, 
and  from  the  then  rapidly  developing  oil  industry.  It  was  the 
period  of  the  town's  most  rapid  growth.  In  1863  there  had 
come  to  be  toward  7000  inhabitants ;  and  a  city  charter  was 
granted  February  15,  1866. 


64  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

extensive  repairs,  at  a  cost  of  over  $800,  and 
eight  new  pews  were  added  in  order  to  accom- 
modate the  increased  attendance.  In  May  of 
the  next  year,  too,  Miss  Margaret  Shippen,  who, 
it  will  be  remembered,  had  given  half  the  origi- 
nal church  lot,  gave  for  a  minister's  house  her 
former  residence,  a  brick  house  and  lot  at  the 
rear  of  the  church.  The  house  had  been 
erected  by  the  county  in  18 19,  and  had  served 
for  county  offices  until  the  completion  of  the 
new  Court  House  in  1825.  This  gift  was  made 
upon  the  condition  that  ^1000  should,  at  Miss 
Shippen's  death,  be  paid  to  the  Theological 
School  on  her  behalf,  and  that  an  annuity  re- 
presenting the  rents  of  the  property  should  be 
paid  her  during  the  remainder  of  her  life ;  but 
she  assigned  the  latter  in  1867  to  the  Theolo- 
gical School.^  The  house  was  never  much 
occupied  by  the  ministers,  but  was  generally 
rented,  until  it  was  demolished  in  1891  to  make 
room  for  the  present  minister's  house. 

Mr.  Metcalf  was  a  man  small  in  stature,  never 

1  Miss  Shippen  had  for  many  years  resided  in  Philadelphia, 
where  she  died  May  9,  1876,  aged  ninety-four  years.  The  J^iooo 
was  paid  over  to  the  Theological  School  soon  after  the  gift  of 
the  property,  out  of  a  joint  fund  made  up  by  the  Huidekoper 
heirs. 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  65 

of  robust  health,  and  with  defective  eyesight ; 
yet  he  bore  his  crosses  with  a  heroic  endurance 
and  a  Christian  cheerfulness  which  won  him 
not  only  the  respect  but  the  devoted  love  of  his 
congregation.  He  is  said  to  have  been  not 
unlike  Starr  King  in  his  brightness,  genial- 
ity, and  love  of  humor.  Conservative  in  faith, 
but  of  generous  tolerance,  he  was  a  man  of 
fine  mind  and  spirit,  and  of  modest  demeanor, 
equally  good  as  preacher  or  as  pastor ;  and  his 
sermons,  which  his  lack  of  eyesight  compelled 
him  to  dictate  to  an  amanuensis,  and  which  he 
preached  memoriter,  were  earnest  and  thought- 
ful, full  of  practical  sense  and  a  large  spiritual- 
ity. Continued  ill  health  compelled  him  to  give 
up  his  work  here  in  May,  1865;  and  the  es- 
teem in  which  he  was  held  is  witnessed  by  the 
proposition  that  was  made  at  the  time  of  his 
resignation,  to  make  him  a  parting  gift  of  six 
months'  salary.  He  afterward  became  more 
vigorous  in  body,  and  in  1866  became  the  first 
minister  of  the  new  church  at  Winchester, 
Mass.,  which  he  served  for  fifteen  years,  until 
his  death,  June  30,  1881,  at  the  age  of  fifty-one 
years. 

It  was  a  full  year  after  Mr.  Metcalf's  depar- 


66  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

ture  before  his  successor  arrived ;  and  in  the 
mean  time  the  pulpit  was  supplied  by  the  Rev. 
Abiel  Abbot  Livermore,  who  had  succeeded  Dr. 
Stearns  in  1863  as  president  of  the  Theological 
School,  by  Professor  Frederic  Huidekoper,  and 
by  students  or  visiting  ministers.  At  length  a 
call  was  given,  January  28,  1866,  to  the  Rev. 
John  Celivergos  Zachos  of  West  Newton,  Mass. 
He  accepted  the  call  and  began  his  ministry 
here  at  the  beginning  of  May,  at  a  salary  of 
$1500,  in  addition  to  the  rents  of  the  minis- 
ter's house,  and  with  four  weeks'  annual  vaca- 
tion. The  kindly  attitude  of  the  other  churches, 
which  in  Mr.  Metcalf's  time  had  happily  suc- 
ceeded to  a  long  period  of  intermittent  contro- 
versy, continued  during  Mr.  Zachos's  ministry. 
Mr.  Zachos  was  a  Greek  by  birth  (though 
that  was  not  evident  in  his  appearance  or  his 
speech),  and  had  come  to  America  when  a  mere 
lad  with  Dr.  Samuel  G.  Howe  of  Boston.  He 
was  a  graduate  of  Kenyon  College,  but  had  not 
studied  with  direct  reference  to  his  profession, 
and  before  entering  the  ministry  had  been  prin- 
cipal of  the  preparatory  department  of  Antioch 
College,  where  he  was  a  fellow-teacher  with 
Professor  George  L.  Cary.     Something  of  the 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  67 

schoolmaster  was  apparent  in  his  style  of 
preaching.  He  was  a  versatile  man,  with  an 
uncommonly  wide  range  of  interests ;  a  Greek 
in  temperament  as  well  as  by  birth,  fond  of  ab- 
stract themes,  and  inclined  to  consider  subjects 
rather  from  the  philosophical  or  speculative 
than  from  the  practical  side.  Yet,  though  flu- 
ent in  language,  he  was  not  considered  an  espe- 
cially strong  preacher,  nor  yet  a  superior  pastor. 
In  addition  to  the  work  of  his  ministry,  he  was 
professor  of  Sacred  Rhetoric  and  Oratory  in 
the  Theological  School  during  the  two  years  of 
his  residence  here,  and  continued  to  hold  this 
office  during  the  year  after  his  departure,  re- 
turning to  give  lectures.  To  him,  it  is  said, 
is  due  the  suggestion  that  led  to  the  forming 
of  the  Meadville  Literary  Union  in  December, 
1866. 

Mr.  Zachos  resigned  in  July,  1868,  and  left 
Meadville  at  the  beginning  of  October,  in  order 
to  accept  a  call  to  the  church  at  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 
His  departure  was  generally  lamented,  as  the 
loss  of  a  faithful  minister  who  was  ready  to  de- 
vote himself  to  every  good  cause,  and  who  had 
endeared  himself  to  all  classes  by  his  affable 
manner  and  his  kindness  of  heart.     He  was 


68  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

minister  at  Ithaca  for  one  year,  where  he  also 
lectured  at  Cornell  University  on  elocution,  a 
subject  upon  which  he  published  several  books. 
In  1872  he  became  curator  of  the  Cooper 
Union  in  New  York  City,  and  held  this  office 
until  his  death,  on  March  20,  1898,  at  the  age 
of  seventy-seven  years. 

After  Mr.  Zachos  there  followed  yet  another 
interval  of  nearly  eighteen  months  during  which 
no  regular  minister  was  settled.  The  pulpit 
was  supplied  by  visiting  ministers,  by  theologi- 
cal students,  and  by  President  Livermore.  It 
was  in  this  interval  that,  beginning  early  in 
February,  1869,  a  series  of  Unitarian  theatre 
meetings  was  held  for  several  weeks  at  Museum 
Hall  in  Chestnut  street,  and  afterward  at  the 
Opera  House,  at  the  southeast  corner  of  Water 
and  Chestnut  streets.  The  meetings  were  held 
under  the  direction  of  the  professors  and  stu- 
dents of  the  Theological  School.  There  was 
preaching  by  the  Rev.  Joseph  F.  Lovering  of 
Concord,  N.  H.,  by  the  Rev.  George  W.  Hosmer, 
D.  D.,  of  Buffalo,  and  by  Mr.  Ellery  Channing 
Butler,  a  student  in  the  Theological  School. 
Theatre  preaching  was  in  great  vogue  at  just 
that  period,  as  a  mode  of  evangelistic  endeavor ; 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  69 

and  the  meetings  here  were  well  attended,  and 
excited  a  considerable  degree  of  popular  interest. 
On  February  26,  1870,  the  Rev.  Henry  Par- 
tridge Cutting,  recently  from  the  church  at 
Alton,  111.,  was  called  to  be  minister,  and  began 
his  labors  on  the  second  Sunday  in  March,  at  a 
salary  of  $1200  and  house,  with  four  weeks'  va- 
cation. He  was  a  man  of  middle  age,  who  had 
originally  preached  for  some  twenty  years  in  Uni- 
versalist  churches  in  New  England,  and  more 
recently  in  Unitarian  churches  in  the  Mississippi 
valley.  He  was  a  vigorous  preacher,  untiring 
in  the  faithfulness  and  earnestness  with  which 
he  labored  to  discharge  his  duties ;  but  though 
the  church  at  first  continued  to  grow  in  strength 
under  his  ministry,  the  attendance  at  church 
and  at  Sunday-school  at  length  fell  off.  He  was 
a  man  of  high  character,  though  not  of  great 
culture  or  tact,  and  with  certain  infelicities  of 
temper.  But,  although  he  had  many  friends 
here,  his  was  not  one  of  the  church's  happiest 
pastorates  ;  and  the  friction  that  developed  to- 
ward the  end  of  it  caused  some  division  of  feel- 
ing among  the  members  of  the  congregation. 
His  relation  with  the  church  was  terminated  in 
the  spring  of  1873,  when  he  went  to  Sterling, 


70  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

Mass.,  where  he  preached  for  eight  years.  In 
1 88 1  he  entered  the  ministry  of  the  orthodox 
Congregational  church,  and  held  various  pastor- 
ates in  it  until  his  death  at  Harwichport,  Mass., 
December  13,  1896,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three 
years. 

In  the  interval  following  Mr.  Cutting's  depar- 
ture, the  pulpit  was  supplied  for  three  months 
by  the  Rev.  Clark  G.  Howland  of  Kalamazoo, 
Mich.,  and,  as  usual  in  such  cases,  by  mem- 
bers of  the  Theological  School  and  by  visiting 
ministers.  In  the  month  of  December,  1873, 
Mr.  Francis  Greenwood  Peabody  of  Boston 
preached  two  Sundays  as  a  candidate.  He  was 
a  graduate  of  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in 
the  preceding  year,  and  son  of  the  Rev.  Ephraim 
Peabody,  one  of  the  earliest  ministers  of  the 
church.  His  preaching  aroused  the  greatest 
•interest,  and  he  was  promptly  called  by  a  unan- 
imous vote,  at  the  salary  of  $1800  in  addition 
to  the  rents  of  the  minister's  house,  —  a  larger 
salary  than  has  ever  been  offered  to  any  one 
else  either  before  or  since.  His  decision  hung 
in  the  balance  for  some  time  ;  but  he  at  length 
declined  the  call,  and  accepted  one  to  the  First 
Parish  Church  at  Cambridge,  Mass.,  where  he 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  71 

has  now  for  many  years  been  professor  in 
Harvard  University.  Mr.  Peabody's  classmate, 
Mr.  Robert  Swain  Morison  of  Milton,  Mass., 
preached  here  next  as  a  candidate  in  March  and 
April,  1874,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  was 
called  unanimously  at  the  salary  of  ^1500  with 
five  weeks'  vacation.  The  call  was  accepted 
for  the  period  of  ten  months ;  and  at  the  end  of 
that  time  it  was  renewed .  for  an  indefinite  pe- 
riod, and  accepted.  After  accepting  the  call, 
Mr.  Morison  received  ordination  at  Milton, 
July  I,  1874,  and  began  his  ministry  here  with 
the  month  of  September.  In  the  intervening 
summer  the  church  was  thoroughly  renovated 
and  repaired,  at  a  cost  of  over  $600. 

Mr.  Morison  was  one  of  the  best  beloved 
ministers  that  this  church  has  ever  had.  Dur- 
ing his  ministry  the  church  visibly  grew  both 
in  the  outward  evidences  of  strength  and  wel- 
fare, and  in  the  deepening  of  spirit  and  of  inter- 
est in  works  of  benevolence  and  philanthropy; 
and  it  became  as  prosperous  as  at  almost  any 
time  in  its  history.  Mr.  Morison  was  a  su- 
perior and  indefatigable  pastor,  and  he  achieved 
the  most  phenomenal  success  in  his  work  with 
the  Sunday-school.     Largely  a  mission  school. 


72  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

with  many  scholars  from  the  German  element, 
it  rapidly  grew  until  it  had  an  enrollment  of 
over  450,  becoming  one  of  the  largest  schools 
in  the  denomination,  and  larger,  I  think,  than 
any  school  at  Meadville  has  been  either  before 
or  since. 

The  demands  of  the  Sunday-school,  which 
had  now  far  outgrown  its  accommodations  in 
the  church,  where  it  had  always  met  hitherto, 
led  to  renewed  discussion  of  a  plan,  which 
had  been  considered  as  early  as  1 871,  to  erect 
a  parish  building  for  the  better  accommodation 
of  the  Sunday-school  and  the  social  meetings  of 
the  church.  It  had  been  at  first  proposed  that 
the  terrace  at  the  west  of  the  church  should  be 
removed,  and  the  basement  finished  off  for  the 
purpose ;  but  it  was  soon  realized  that  such  a 
plan  would  be  far  from  satisfying  the  needs  that 
were  felt.  In  September,  1875,  however,  the 
timely  gift  of  $5000  from  the  heirs  of  the  late 
H.  J.  Huidekoper,  made  it  possible  to  erect 
the  present  parish  building,  on  the  lot  which 
had  been  acquired  in  1854  adjoining  the  church 
on  the  east.  Construction  was  begun  the  next 
spring,  and  the  building  was  completed  in  Au- 
gust, at  a  total  expense  of  over  $6000.     The 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  73 

furnishing  cost  over  $1000  more,  of  which  the 
Young  Ladies'  Society  contributed  about  ^600, 
while  $100  in  pennies  was  raised  by  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Sunday-school.  The  building  thus 
furnished  was  dedicated  on  Saturday,  Novem- 
ber 18, 1876,  and  a  house-warming  followed  five 
days  later. 

Pleasant  relations  with  the  other  churches 
of  the  city  continued  during  Mr.  Morison's 
ministry,  and  in  1875  he  was  invited  by  the 
Presbyterian  minister  to  take  part  in  a  union 
Thanksgiving  day  service.  "  The  tidal  wave  of 
toleration  has  reached  Meadville  in  full  force," 
wrote  a  correspondent  to  the  "  Liberal  Chris- 
tian." A  ministry  of  the  greatest  promise  was 
cut  short  when,  in  the  autumn  of  1877,  Mr.  Mor- 
ison  fell  a  victim  to  nervous  prostration,  which 
proved  so  serious  that  he  was  compelled  to  offer 
his  resignation  the  following  March.  The  re- 
signation was  accepted  with  extreme  reluctance 
and  universal  sorrow.  This  was  Mr.  Morison's 
sole  pastorate;  and  he  has  never  failed  each 
year  since  to  testify  his  abiding  affection  for  his 
only  church  by  sending  it  a  box  of  roses  at 
Easter.  He  has  been  librarian  of  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School  since  1889. 


74  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

Some  months  of  casual  supplies  again  en- 
sued, when  the  Rev.  James  Thompson  Bixby  of 
Belfast,  Maine,  who  had  preached  here  as  a  can- 
didate two  Sundays  in  September,  was  called, 
October  6,  1878,  to  perform  joint  service  as 
minister  of  the  church  and  professor  of  Re- 
ligious Philosophy  and  Ethnic  Religions  in  the 
Theological  School.  He  began  his  ministry  in 
January,  1879.  Mr.  Bixby's  conspicuous  gifts 
were  those  of  a  scholar,  an  indefatigable  student, 
and  a  preacher  of  thoughtful  sermons  of  a  high 
intellectual  character.  During  his  ministry  a 
monthly  parish  paper  was  published  for  three 
years,  and  was  quite  helpful  to  the  cause  of  the 
church.  It  was  known  in  1879  and  1880  as 
*'  Church  and  School,"  and  was  edited  by  Fitz 
Henry  Bemis.  In  188 1  it  became  "  Good  Tid- 
ings," published  jointly  in  the  interest  of  this 
church  and  the  church  at  Buffalo,  with  the 
Rev.  George  W.  Cutter  as  additional  editor. 
Mr.  Bixby  ministered  to  the  church  acceptably 
until  the  summer  of  1883,  when,  having  re- 
signed, he  went  abroad  for  the  purpose  of  uni- 
versity study  in  Germany.  He  has  been  settled 
over  the  church  at  Yonkers,  N.  Y.,  since  1887. 

In  September,  1883,  the  Rev.  William  Phil- 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  75 

lips  Tilden  of  Boston,  who  had  finished  his  ac- 
tive ministry,  was  invited  to  come  to  this  church 
as  a  temporary  supply,  at  a  compensation  of 
^125  per  month.  He  was  unable  to  come  at 
once,  but  came  at  the  beginning  of  January  for 
a  supply  of  four  months.  He  soon  became 
revered  and  loved  both  in  the  church  and  in 
the  community  at  large  to  such  an  extent  that 
he  was  compelled,  contrary  to  his  first  inten- 
tion, to  return  for  a  second  season.  At  the 
end  of  his  second  term,  the  church  again  re- 
newed its  call,  and  would  have  been  heartily 
glad  to  settle  him  as  its  minister  for  an  in- 
definite period;  but  he  was  unwilling,  at  his 
advanced  age,  again  to  take  up  the  responsibili- 
ties of  a  regular  pastorate,  and,  after  supplying 
during  the  seven  months  from  October,  1884,  to 
April,  1885,  he  returned  to  New  England. 

Mr.  Tilden  had  been  trained  in  early  life  as  a 
ship-carpenter,  but  had  left  that  calling  to  study 
for  the  ministry  under  the  Rev.  Samuel  J.  May, 
and  had  preached  for  more  than  forty  years  in 
New  England  churches.  He  was  a  forcible  and 
interesting  speaker,  combining  vigor  of  thought 
with  simplicity  of  expression ;  of  saintly  char- 
acter, and  beloved  wherever  he  went.     While 


76  HISTORICAL  SKETCH  . 

preaching,  here,  he  also  delivered  courses  of 
lectures  to  the  theological  students  on  pastoral 
duties,  which  were  so  highly  esteemed  that  they 
were  published  under  the  title,  "  The  Work  of 
the  Ministry."  Harvard  College  honored  him 
with  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  in  1884.  He 
died  at  Milton,  Mass.,  October  3,  1890,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-nine  years. 

The  pulpit  was  again  filled  by  supplies  until 
the  end  of  the  year,  when  the  Rev.  Henry  Her- 
vey  Barber  was  asked  to  supply  the  pulpit  until 
the  summer  vacation.  Mr.  Barber  was  a  gradu- 
ate of  the  Meadville  Theological  School^  in 
the  class  of  186 1,  and  had  come  to  Meadville  in 
the  autumn  of  1884  from  his  church  at  Somer- 
ville,  Mass.,  to  become  professor  of  the  Philo- 
sophy and  History  of  Religion  in  the  Theologi- 
cal School.  His  services  to  the  church  were  so 
satisfactory,  both  in  the  pulpit,  where  his  preach- 
ing was  earnest,  fervent,  and,  in  the  best  sense 
of  the  word,  popular,  and  among  the  people, 
where  he  showed  himself  a  real  pastor,  that 
he  was  re-engaged  from  year  to  year  until  the 

^  Curiously  enough,  of  all  the  ministers  of  this  church,  but 
three  have  received  their  training  at  Meadville :  Messrs.  Staples, 
Shippen,  and  Barber. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  77 

summer  of  1890,  when  the  state  of  his  health  re- 
quired him  to  confine  himself  simply  to  his  work 
as  professor.  Mr.  Barber's  ministry  endeared 
him  to  the  people  in  both  city  and  country ;  and 
he  has  ever  since  been  regarded  by  many  per- 
sons without  definite  church  connections,  both 
in  town  and  in  the  surrounding  country  (whither 
he  often  went  to  preach),  as  a  sort  of  pastor-at- 
large.  A  noteworthy  event  of  his  ministry  was 
the  celebration,  on  June  16,  1886,  of  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  dedication  of  the  church. 
A  historical  discourse  was  delivered  by  the 
Rev.  Rush  R.  Shippen  ;  addresses  were  made 
by  Alfred  Huidekoper,  president  of  the  even- 
ing, by  Joseph  Shippen,  Esq.,  the  Rev.  George 
W.  Cutter  of  Buffalo,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Tilden,  and 
others.  Letters  were  read  from  former  minis- 
ters of  the  church,  and  the  hymns  sung  at  the 
dedication  of  the  church  were  sung  again.  The 
anniversary  was  attended  by  many  friends  from 
a  distance,  and  was  most  successfully  carried 
out.  In  1887  the  organ,  which  had  until  then 
stood  in  the  gallery,  was  brought  down  and 
placed  at  the  front  of  the  church,  east  of  the 
pulpit,  and  some  further  alterations  were  made. 
It  was  more  than  a  year  before  a  successor 


78  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

to  Professor  Barber  was  found  ;  and  during  the 
interval  the  pulpit  was  acceptably  supplied,  with 
morning  services  only,  by  Professor  Barber, 
Professor  Egbert  Morse  Chesley,  and  Professor 
George  Rudolph  Freeman  of  the  Theological 
School.  Meanwhile  the  Rev.  William  L.  Chaffin 
of  North  Easton,  Mass.,  and  the  Rev.  George  L. 
Chaney  of  Atlanta,  Ga.,  were  successively  called 
to  the  church,  and  both  declined.  At  length  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Jefferson  Volentine  of  Duluth, 
Minn.,  was  called,  July  25,  1891,  after  having 
preached  here  during  the  month  as  a  candidate. 
He  accepted  the  call,  and  began  his  ministry  in 
September,  at  a  salary  of  $1500,  and  house. 
During  the  summer  the  present  commodious 
and  pleasant  minister's  house  had  been  built  at 
an  expense  of  about  $6000,  given  from  a  joint 
fund  contributed  by  the  Huidekoper  heirs,  and 
supplemented  by  donations  from  Miss  Elizabeth 
G.  Huidekoper. 

Mr.  Volentine,  not  a  well  man,  was  a  good 
preacher,  facile  in  extemporaneous  discourse, 
deeply  interested  in  temperance  and  in  other 
questions  of  practical  sociology,  and  in  the  im- 
provement of  the  city.  He  had  originally  been 
in  the  ministry  of  the  orthodox  Congregational 


mw\ 


\  -M 


i.,rt' 


I  > 


'7- '7  1 


M».i 


lit.  W 

P:tH'-'^    .'-'4'.  * 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  79 

church,  and  attached  great  importance  to  a 
proper  organization  and  a  recognized  member- 
ship as  necessary  for  the  church's  future  pros- 
perity. Finding  that  these  matters,  in  the 
many  and  frequent  changes  of  ministers,  had 
suffered  some  neglect,  he  endeavored  with 
great  zeal  to  bring  them  into  what  he  con- 
ceived to  be  a  desirable  condition.  In  the 
process  of  this  work  the  discovery  was  made 
that  a  creed  (long  forgotten  even  by  the  most 
of  those  that  had  signed  it)  was  still  imposed 
as  a  test  of  membership,  and  that  a  consider- 
able number  of  the  most  devoted  supporters  of 
the  church  were  unwilling  to  become  members 
of  it  under  any  such  condition.  The  attempt 
was  made  to  abolish  the  creed  altogether,  and 
thus  to  bring  this  church  into  harmony,  as  to 
limits  of  religious  freedom,  with  the  great  ma- 
jority of  the  Unitarian  churches  of  the  country. 
But  to  such  a  course  unexpected  opposition 
developed,  and  a  compromise  was  at  length 
arrived  at,  and  a  resolution  adopted  according 
to  which  persons  having  conscientious  scru- 
ples about  subscribing  a  creed  might  never- 
theless become  members  of  the  church  by 
so  stating  upon  signing  their  names.     These 


8o  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

reforms  seemed,  however,  at  the  time  when  they 
were  first  proposed,  so  revolutionary,  and  they 
were  urged  in  a  manner  so  injudicious,  as  to 
arouse  some  feeling  of  personal  antagonism, 
which  culminated  at  length  in  Mr.  Volentine's 
resignation.  Many  members  joined  the  church 
under  these  new  conditions,  and  the  creed  has 
again  dropped  into  obscurity.  Persons  joining 
the  church  since  1895  have  done  so  upon  sub- 
scribing the  simple  and  undogmatic  covenant 
now  so  widely  used  in  Unitarian  churches :  "  In 
the  love  of  truth,  and  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  we 
unite  for  the  worship  of  God,  and  the  service  of 
man."  It  is  not  likely  that  the  creedal  test  will 
ever  again  be  insisted  upon ;  but  the  church 
has  not  yet  seen  fit  squarely  to  disavow  the 
right  to  prescribe  certain  beliefs  for  its  mem- 
bers. Mr.  Volentine's  resignation  was  pre- 
sented, May,  1893,  and  at  once  accepted.  He 
went  from  Meadville  at  the  beginning  of  Sep- 
tember, and  was  afterward  minister  of  the 
church  at  Waterville,  Maine.  After  a  painful 
and  lingering  illness  he  died  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
February  22,  1900,  at  the  age  of  fifty-eight  years. 
After  many  tribulations  in  trying  to  have  the 
old  organ  repaired,  it  was  thought  best  to  dis- 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  8i 

pose  of  it  altogether,  and  a  new  organ  was  pur- 
chased late  in  1893  at  a  cost  of  $1885.  During 
the  season  from  the  autumn  of  1893  to  the 
summer  of  1894,  the  pulpit  of  the  church  was 
ably  supplied  by  the  Rev.  James  Morris  Whi- 
ton,  Ph.  D.,  of  New  York,  —  a  clergyman  of 
the  orthodox  Congregational  church,  who  had 
been  recommended  by  our  national  Committee 
on  Fellowship.  In  addition  to  his  duties  as 
minister,  he  lectured  upon  ethics  and  econom- 
ics in  the  Theological  School  for  a  part  of  the 
year,  to  supply  a  vacancy.  Dr.  Whiton  was  not 
what  is  called  a  popular  preacher ;  but  he  was 
in  close  touch  with  the  important  questions  of 
the  day,  and  his  profound  and  scholarly  ser- 
mons were  highly  appreciated.  His  fine  social 
qualities  made  him  a  very  useful  pastor,  and  he 
did  much  to  make  the  church  respected  in  the 
community  by  the  ability  and  excellent  spirit 
of  his  work.  But  though  Dr.  Whiton  gave 
great  satisfaction  both  as  preacher  and  as  pas- 
tor, it  was  not  thought  advisable  to  form  perma- 
nent relations  with  a  minister  not  in  the  Unita- 
rian fellowship,  and  his  ministry  here  ceased  in 
June,  1894.  He  is  well  known  as  one  of  the 
present  editors  of  the  "  Outlook." 


82  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

On  March  17,  1894,  the  Rev.  Frederick  L. 
Hosmer,  late  of  the  church  at  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
was  called,  but  the  call  was  not  accepted.  A 
month  later  a  call  was  given  to  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Irvin  Lawrance,  of  Boston,  which  the  state 
of  his  health  did  not  permit  him  to  accept.  A 
call  given  in  November  to  Mr.  Minot  Osgood 
Simons,  a  recent  graduate  of  the  Harvard  Di- 
vinity School,  was  also  declined.  At  the  an- 
nual meeting  in  January,  1895,  a  second  call 
was  given  to  Mr.  Lawrance,  who  was  at  that 
time  supplying  the  pulpit,  and  he  accepted,  at  a 
salary  of  $1500  and  house.  Mr.  Lawrance  had 
been  for  a  number  of  years  a  minister  in  the 
Christian  Connection,  and  had  more  recently 
been  minister  of  a  Unitarian  church  at  Dorches- 
ter, Mass.,  and  a. representative  of  the  American 
Unitarian  Association  in  its  work  in  Japan. 

The  most  important  event  in  the  external 
history  of  the  church  during  Mr.  Lawrance's 
ministry  was  the  extensive  repairs  that  the 
church  building  received  in  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  1897.  The  church  had  fallen  into  a 
somewhat  shabby  state,  and  the  plans  for  repair- 
ing it  received  earnest  discission  and  aroused 
great  interest  in  the  congregation  at  large.  The 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  83 

end  aimed  at  was  to  restore  the  church  to  con- 
sistent harmony  with  the  original  plans,  with 
modern  freshening  and  brightening  of  color ; 
and  the  effect  secured  was  that  of  the  "  old 
Colonial "  style  of  New  England,  and  it  gave 
great  satisfaction  to  all.  The  church  was  given 
a  new  ceiling,  and  was  repainted  and  newly 
decorated ;  the  alcove  behind  the  pulpit  was 
deepened,  and  the  organ  placed  in  it ;  the  seats 
were  made  lower  and  wider,  and  the  pulpit 
lowered  and  brought  forward,  and  some  of  the 
front  pews  removed  to  make  room  for  it.  The 
repairs  were  accomplished  at  a  cost  of  about 
$2500,  and  church  services,  which  had  during 
the  mean  time  been  held  in  the  parish  building, 
were  resumed  in  the  church  on  Sunday,  No- 
vember 28,  1897. 

Mr.  Lawrance's  ministry  was  carried  on 
under  continuous  physical  infirmities,  and  dur- 
ing the  most  of  the  first  six  months,  owing  to 
his  illness,  the  pulpit  was  supplied  by  members 
of  the  senior  class  in  the  Theological  School ; 
while  students  and  professors  rendered  fre- 
quent assistance  during  the  years  following. 
Mr.  Lawrance  pursued  his  ministry  with  a  true 
evangelistic  zeal  and  fervor,  and  both  he  and 


84  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

his  wife,  who  brought  untiring  vigor  into  her 
own  part  of  the  parish  work,  greatly  endeared 
themselves  to  the  people.  In  the  pulpit  he 
was  winning,  original,  and  persuasive ;  and  the 
church  attendance  steadily  grew  under  his  min- 
istry. The  work  of  the  church  for  the  children 
and  young  people  throve ;  and  spiritual  life  was 
visibly  deepened  among  the  congregation,  and 
found  expression  in  a  series  of  neighborhood 
meetings  held  in  private  houses  during  the 
lenten  season  of  1898. 

During  the  season  of  1896-97,  Mr.  Law- 
rance  edited  a  monthly  parish  paper  called 
"  Good  Tidings,"  which  provided  a  means  of 
intercommunication  for  the  parish,  and  served 
a  certain  missionary  purpose.  In  his  ministry 
the  last  trace  of  controversy  with  other  churches 
seems  to  have  vanished ;  ^  he  was  made  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Meadville  Ministerial  Association, 

*  1  The  last  public  controversy  was  one  carried  on  in  the  Mead- 
ville Tribu7ie,  in  the  autumn  of  1886.  Originally  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Bible,  between  Fitz  Henry  Bemis  on  the  one  side 
and  the  Rev.  T.  D.  Logan  of  the  Central  Presbyterian  church 
on  the  other,  it  presently  drifted  into  a  debate  upon  the  doC' 
trines  of  the  Roman  CathoHc  church,  between  the  Rev.  J.  G. 
Carnachan  of  the  Congregational  church,  and  the  Rev.  J.  J. 
Dunn  of  St.  Bridget's  church.  The  whole  controversy  occu- 
pied some  seven  months,  and  was  widely  read. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  85 

and  was  invited  to  preach  at  the  union  Thanks- 
giving day  service  in  the  Baptist  church  in 
1897.  It  was  a  deep  disappointment  to  the 
parish  when  Mr.  Lawrance  offered  his  resigna- 
tion at  the  beginning  of  March,  1899,  to  accept 
a  call  to  the  church  at  Winchester,  Mass., 
whither  he  went  a  month  later.  During  the 
months  that  followed  his  departure  several  can- 
didates were  heard ;  and  in  September  one  of 
them,  the  Rev.  Earl  Morse  Wilbur,  who  had 
previously  had  a  ministry  of  eight  years  with 
the  church  at  Portland,  Oregon,  was  called. 
His  ministry  began  with  the  last  Sunday  in  Oc- 
tober, 1899,  and  is  not  yet  material  for  history. 

No  history  of  this  church  would  be  complete 
that  failed  to  give  some  account  of  the  various 
subordinate  organizations  through  which  it  has 
performed  its  work  along  manifold  lines.  Of 
these  the  oldest  and  probably  the  most  impor- 
tant in  its  usefulness  has  been  that  of  the  wo- 
men of  the  church.  As  has  already  been  re- 
lated, the  women  were  accustomed  from  the 
very  beginning  of  the  movement  to  meet  and 
sew;  but  it  was  not  until  the  autumn  of  1845 
that  they  formally  organized  by  adopting  a 
constitution,  under  the  name  of  "  The  Ladies' 


86  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

Benevolent  Circle,"  "to  promote  a  spirit  of 
mutual  sympathy,  to  assist  in  individual  im- 
provement, and  to  aid  in  works  of  benevo- 
lence." Meetings  were  to  be  held  fortnightly, 
and  the  time  "  devoted  to  charitable  work  and 
reading  books  of  a  moral  and  religious  char- 
acter." The  women  of  the  Circle  sewed  for 
the  poor,  and  for  many  years  attended  to 
such  general  relief  work  as  is  now  carried 
on  through .  the  Associated  Charities.  Their 
meetings,  in  recent  years  held  monthly,  have 
been  continued  without  interruption  from  the 
beginning  down  to  the  present  day,  except  for 
a  time  during  the  Civil  War,  when  the  women 
were  occupied  in  sewing  for  the  soldiers ;  and 
their  socials  or  suppers,  held  sometimes  fort- 
nightly and  sometimes  monthly,  have  been  the 
social  center  of  the  parish.  The  Circle  has  in 
the  aggregate  earned  and  disbursed  a  large 
amount  of  money,  both  for  the  especial  pur- 
poses of  the  church  and  for  general  benevo- 
lence, and  has  always  assumed  the  care  and 
maintenance  of  the  parish  building  as  its  espe- 
cial responsibility.  Post-office  Mission  work  has 
been  carried  on  by  a  special  committee  since 
1894. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  87 

The  women  also  maintained  a  branch  of  the 
National  Alliance  of  Unitarian  and  Other  Lib- 
eral Christian  Women  from  1891  to  1898,  which 
at  first  existed  separately,  but  was  in  1893 
merged  with  the  Ladies'  Benevolent  Circle, 
though  it  still  held  separate  monthly  meetings 
alternating  with' the  meetings  for  sewing. 

The  Sunday-school  has  from  the  beginning 
been  nurtured  with  the  care  it  deserved,  and  has 
often  been  large  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
size  of  the  regular  parish.  It  has  always  been 
to  a  greater  or  less  degree  a  mission  school, 
drawing  in  many  children  whose  families  had 
other  church  connection^  or  none  at  all ;  and 
from  such  sources  niany  members  for  the 
church  have  eventually  come.  The  school  has 
been  singularly  fortunate  in  being  able  to  draw 
so  largely  upon  the  theological  students  for  its 
officers  and  teachers ;  and  some  of  the  most 
successful  Sunday-school  workers  in  the  de- 
nomination have  had  their  early  training  in 
the  work  of  superintending  or  teaching  in  the 
Meadville"  Sunday-school.^      The   school  has 

1  To  mention  no  others,  the  Rev.  Edward  A.  Horton  and  the 
Rev.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  superintendents  in  1867  and  1868 
respectively. 


88  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

at  various  times  raised  considerable  sums  of 
money  in  aid  of  local  church  work,  or  of  chari- 
table objects  at  a  distance. 

Perhaps  the  most  active  and  vigorous  work, 
carried  on  in  connection  with  the  church  in  its 
later  years  has  been  that  of  the  young  women, 
who  in  1874  organized  the  Young  Ladies'  Soci- 
ety, for  the  purpose  of  raising  money  to  erect  a 
parish  building.  To  this  end  fairs  and  bazaars 
were  held,  entertainments  and  concerts  given, 
suppers  served,  and  various  other  means  were 
employed.  The  money  for  the  desired  building 
having  been  supplied  from  another  source,  the 
young  women  contributed  largely  toward  the 
furnishings.  In  1883,  the  members,  in  order 
the  better  to  inform  themselves  about  the  relig- 
ious faith  they  professed,  added  reading  and  lec- 
tures to  their  meetings,  and  in  1887  the  name  of 
the  society  was  changed  to  "  Ladies'  Auxiliary 
Society,"  in  order  to  signify  the  desire  for  closer 
cooperation  with  the  Benevolent  Circle,  with 
which  it  has  at  times  held  its  meetings.  The 
membership  of  the  society  has  averaged  about 
thirty,  and  monthly  or  fortnightly  meetings 
have  been  held  —  in  recent  years  with  the  ac- 
companiment of  suppers.     The  society  has  at 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  89 

one  time  or  another  bought  a  piano  for  the 
Sunday-school,  redecorated  or  refurnished  the 
parish  building,  contributed  toward  the  church 
organ  or  the  choir  fund,  and  given  substantial 
aid  to  many  other  objects  both  related  to  the 
church  and  separate  from  it. 

In  November,  1886,  a  literary  society  was 
formed,  with  a  membership  of  about  twenty  of 
the  younger  people.  It  held  fortnightly  meet- 
ings at  the  homes  of  members,  and  devoted 
itself  to  the  study  of  the  works  of  an  author 
chosen  for  the  year.  Its  membership  presently 
became  greatly  increased,  and  in  October,  1892, 
it  was  reorganized  as  a  Unity  Club,  and  alhed 
itself  with  the  church  work,  and  met  in  the 
parish  building.  Meetings  were  discontinued 
probably  in  the  spring  of  1896. 

The  young  people  of  the  church  also  united 
for  a  more  direct  religious  purpose  early  in  the 
year  1888,  and  formed  the  Look-Up  League, 
though  without  any  strict  organization.  Sun- 
day evening  religious  meetings  have  been  held 
ever  since  that  time,  and  have  been  of  the  great- 
est value  to  the  religious  life  of  the  members. 
The  League  definitely  organized  by  adopting  a 
constitution  in  the  autumn  of  1 900.     The  nom- 


90  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

inal  membership  is  about  forty,  and  the  meet- 
ings have  been  very  helpful  and  well  attended. 
Other  organizations  of  briefer  duration  among 
the  young  people  for  different  purposes  have 
been  the  Cheerful  Workers  (also  called  Willing 
Workers,  and  Busy  Workers),  a  society  of  the 
young  girls  of  the  Sunday-school,  which  existed 
from  1890  to  1896,  and  by  sales  and  entertain- 
ments raised  money  which  was  spent  for  objects 
of  the  church  or  for  charity ;  the  Footlights,  a 
dramatic  club  of  a  score  or  more  of  members, 
which  held  occasional  entertainments  from 
1893  to  1898,  and  contributed  generously  to 
church  causes  ;  the  Whatsoever  Club  of  girls  of 
the  Sunday-school,  formed  in  1898,  and  still  ex- 
isting under  the  name  of  the  Girls'  Club,  aim- 
ing to  make  its  efforts  useful  to  the  church 
in  any  way  possible  ;  the  Knights  Excelsior,  a 
secret  society  of  boys,  which  met  weekly  from 
1898  to  1900  for  mutual  improvement,  and  fit- 
ted up  a  gymnasium  in  the  Sunday-school  room. 
Doubtless  there  have  been  yet  other  societies 
whose  existence  has  left  no  outward  trace,  but 
has  nevertheless  aided  good  causes,  and  de- 
veloped the  young  in  the  way  of  unselfish  en- 
deavor. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  91 

The  deeper  history  of  a  church  is  written  in 
the  Hves  of  the  members  whom  it  has  nourished, 
and  who  have  supported  it  in  turn  with  true 
fiHal  devotion.  Not  to  mention  those  still 
among  the  living,  it  would  be  ungrateful  not 
to  put  on  record  here  the  names  of  at  least  a 
few  of  those  whose  devotion  to  the  church  has 
contributed  most  conspicuously  to  its  weKare. 
Some  of  these  have  already  been  mentioned  in 
the  course  of  this  history.  Besides  them,  there 
were  such  men  as  Octavius  Hastings,  a  well- 
known  merchant,  for  a  generation  one  of  the 
most  active  and  faithful  in  his  attention  to 
the  business  affairs  of  the  church,  and  William 
D.  Tucker, for  over  thirteen  years  its  treasurer; 
there  were  the  brothers  Huidekoper,  who  gave 
largely  of  their  substance,  whether  in  their  an- 
nual subscriptions  or  for  special  purposes,  but 
not  less  largely  of  personal  effort  inspired  by 
sincere  devotion  to  the  church  that  their  father 
had  founded  :  Alfred,  who  contributed  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  expense  of  the  parish 
building,  and  liberally  toward  the  building  of 
the  minister's  house ;  Edgar,  sometime  trea- 
surer of  the  church,  and  for  many  years  the 
wise  treasurer  of  the  Theological  School ;  and 


92  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

Frederic,  in  whose  heart  the  Theological  School 
was  founded,  who  for  many  years  gave  it  his 
gratuitous  services  as  professor,  and  whose 
daughter  Anna,  continuing  the  traditions  of  the 
family,  left  the  church  a  legacy  of  ^2000  ^  at  her 
lamented  death  in  1893 ;  there  were  also  the 
brothers  Cullum :  Horace,  for  eight  years  trea- 
surer of  the  church,  and  all  his  life  a  model  lay- 
man, never  absent  from  his  seat  on  Sunday; 
Arthur,  showing  his  devotion  to  the  church 
in  constant  attention  to  its  interests,  and  for 
twenty  years  president  of  the  board  of  trustees 
of  the  Theological  School ;  and  Clinton,  whose 
voice  was  for  a  generation  heard  in  the  church 
choir,  who  was  long  a  member  of  the  business 
committee,  and  who  was  constant  in  his  watch- 
ful attention  to  the  many  little  details  that 
make  church  affairs  go  smoothly.  These  are 
some  of  the  names  that  one  finds  recurring 
most  frequently  as  one  reads  the  records  of  the 
church,  and  without  which  its  history  must  have 
been  far  other  than  what  it  is  ;  but  there  have 
been  scores  of  others  whose  love  for  the  church 
and  whose  devotion  to  its  welfare  have  been  not 

^  One  fourth  of  the  income  to  go  to  the  Sunday-school,  the 
rest  to  the  church. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  93 

one  whit  the  less  strong,  and  whose  services 
have  been  less  conspicuous  only  because  their 
opportunities  have  been  more  restricted.  Few 
churches  have  rejoiced  in  a  larger  proportion 
of  both  men  and  women  that  not  only  received 
its  benefits,  but  also  would  give  themselves  to 
it  in  return. 

The  church's  officers  have  served  it  unself- 
ishly and  faithfully,  and  to  them  it  has  owed 
more  than  can  be  repaid  except  in  appreciation 
and  gratitude.  Its  material  resources  have  never 
been  abundant,  but  it  has  been  a  matter  of  tra- 
ditional pride  to  have  its  business  affairs  kept 
well  managed.  The  constitution  of  the  church 
provides  that  "  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  busi- 
ness committee  to  take  care  that  the  salary  of 
the  pastor  be  punctually  paid ;  "  and  there  has 
been  rare  occasion  for  complaint  that  it  was  not 
so.  The  envelope  system  of  collections  was  first 
adopted  in  1874 ;  and  after  various  trials,  weekly 
offerings  have  been  taken  since  1893.  Denom- 
inational benevolences  have  not  been  neglected ; 
and,  in  addition  to  frequent  donations  for  casual 
objects  of  need,  $4330.79  have  been  contributed 
to  the  American  Unitarian  Association  from 
1859  to  1900. 


94  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

At  the  beginning  of  its  history,  as  we  have 
seen,  this  church  was  the  extreme  western  out- 
post of  organized  Unitarianism  in  America.  It 
has  belonged  successively  to  the  Western  Uni- 
tarian Conference,  the  Lake  Erie  Conference, 
the  Ohio  Conference,  and  the  Conference  of 
the  Middle  States  and  Canada,  thus  steadily 
moving,  as  it  were,  from  what  was  relatively  the 
extreme  West  to  what  is  relatively  the  extreme 
East ;  and  frequent  meetings  of  the  several 
conferences  have  been  held  here.^-  The  church 
has  never  been,  and  from  its  environment  is 
hardly  likely  to  become,  one  of  the  greater  and 
stronger  Unitarian  churches  of  the  country; 
but,  conspicuous  in  its  earlier  history,  it  has, 
since  the  establishing  of  the  Theological  School 
here  in  1844,  occupied  a  unique  position  among 
the  churches  of  the  denomination,  and  has 
had  an  importance  out  of  all  proportion  to  its 
numerical  size ;  while  its  ministers  have  had, 
in  their  relation  to  the  theological  students,  an 
unparalleled  opportunity  for  usefulness.     In  its 

1  The  Western  Conference  met  here  June  27,  1864,  and  June 
19,  1872  ;  the  Lake  Erie  Conference,  December  11,  1866  (when 
it  was  organized),  and  June  17,  1868;  the  Ohio  Conference, 
June  8,  1880  (its  first  session);  and  the  Middle  States  Confer- 
ence, June  12,  1894. 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH  95 

local  relations,  the  history  of  the  church  has 
been  one  with  the  history  of  religious  toleration 
at  Meadville.  We  have  traced  the  progress  of 
a  movement  in  which  controversy  has  played  a 
frequent  part.  These  episodes  have  not  been 
pleasant  to  recall,  but  they  have  been  signifi- 
cant as  marking  stages  in  an  evolution.  The 
stage  has  at  length  been  reached  when  the  nar- 
rower bigotry  of  the  older  day,  on  either  side, 
appears  to  have  become  obsolete  in  our  com- 
munity; and  when  Christian  brethren,  though 
of  differing  convictions,  can  yet  dwell  together 
and  work  together  in  unity  of  spirit  and  pur- 
pose, and  in  the  bond  of  peace. 

The  history  of  the  church  during  this  long 
period  has  been  one  singularly  broken  by  fre- 
quent changes  in  its  ministry,  and  by  the  fre- 
quent and  long  intervals  between  the  different 
ministers;  and  yet  the  church  has  also  been 
singularly  fortunate  in  having  such  able  assist- 
ance during  these  intervals  that  the  altar  flame 
has  never  once  flickered  or  been  suffered  to  die 
down,  —  fortunate,  too,  above  all,  in  a  harmony 
of  spirit  that  has  never  once  been  destroyed  by 
a  quarrel  or  division  or  serious  unpleasantness. 
I  said  at  the  outset  that  our  church's  history 


96  HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

had  not  been  rich  in  dramatic  events,  nor  in 
phenomenal  successes.  But,  upon  the  maturer 
reflection  that  we  can  give  after  having  followed 
it  through,  may  we  not  say,  after  all,  that  having 
begun  amid  such  conditions,  struggled  against 
such  opposition,  and  persevered  to  such  a  se- 
rene and  vigorous  age,  the  whole  sum  of  this 
church's  life  has  been  a  success  which  need  not 
shrink  from  comparison  with  that  of  any  other, 
whether  great  or  small  ?  The  book  of  its  his- 
tory is  still  open,  and  the  moving  finger  writes 
daily.  Let  the  memories  of  the  past  be  an  in- 
spiration to  us  by  the  grace  of  God  to  press 
forward  to  a  still  more  worthy  future. 


<  -r. 


